Asia Cup 2022: WATCH - Dinesh Karthik bowls for the first time in his 170-match international career
Dinesh Karthik has been around for a while. He made his international debut way back in September 2004 in an ODI vs England at Lord's. So far the 37-year-old has played 170 international matches (across all three formats) for India. He has scored over 3000 international runs, played match-winning knocks, kept wickets, taken over 100 international catches and pulled off stumpings. But the one thing he hadn't tried his hand at in an international game, till India's Asia Cup Super 4 match vs Afghanistan on Thursday, was bowling. Now, Karthik has bowling figures against his name as well for the first time in his 18-year-long India career. On Thursday, Karthik bowled the first-ever over of his international career when stand-in captain KL Rahul gave him the white leather during the Asia Cup 2022 match against Afghanistan. India had already been knocked out of the Asia Cup prior to this game. After posting a mammoth 212 for 2 in 20 over, thanks largely to a belligerent and much-awaited century by Virat Kohli (122* off 61 balls), the Indian bowlers put the Afghans on the mat at 21/6 in as early as the 7th over. Bhuvneshwar Kumar was the pick of the Indian bowlers returning astonishing figures of 5/4 in his allotted 4 overs. It was in a way surprising to see the Afghan innings extend till the 20th over and the world number 10 ranked team, who have improved in leaps and bounds in the shortest format, not being bowled out, considering the 7th wicket fell in the form of all-rounder Rashid Khan with just 54 runs on the board. Ibrahim Zadran stood tall amidst the ruins with an unbeaten 59 ball 64. He came in at number 3 and stayed till the end, bringing up his 50 and his team's 100 in the very last over.
