Asia Cup 2022, India vs Pakistan: Why Dinesh Karthik was preferred ahead of Rishabh Pant

Team management finds utility of 'Finisher Karthik' more valuable as India continue to experiment in run-up to T20 World CupDUBAI: An interesting thing happened during the team huddle before India started with their warm-ups, around an hour before the match against Pakistan here on Sunday. Wicketkeeper-batsman Dinesh Karthik, the oldest player in the team, was asked to address the team first. Former captain Virat Kohli followed with a few words before incumbent skipper Rohit Sharma finished the pep-talk session, which was moderated by head coach Rahul Dravid. Dravid had joined the team in the early hours of Sunday, flowing in late after having recovered from Covid-19. Thirty minutes later, Rohit announced at the toss that Karthik had been preferred ahead of Rishabh Pant, the more regular stumper and current toast of Indian cricket. The decision came as a surprise to many.

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Hardik Pandya's all-round brilliance powered India to a thrilling five-wicket win over arch-rivals Pakistan in an Asia Cup game on Sunday. Pandya ended with figures of 3/25 in 4 overs while restricting Pakistan to 147 in 19.5 overs and then smashed 33* off 17 balls with the winning six in the last

For Pant, it may be a moment of déjà vu, seeing how he had initially missed out on a spot in India's 2019 World Cup team. That time too, the selectors and team management had preferred the experience of Karthik. This is the first time since the T20 World Cup last year here in Dubai that a near-full-strength Indian team took the field. The only one missing was Jasprit Bumrah. This Asia Cup has been touted as a platform for Dravid and