Where Can India Improve Ahead Of ICC World Cup 2023? Dinesh Karthik Points Out Two Key Areas

The ICC World Cup 2023 is just round the corner and veteran Indian cricket team star Dinesh Karthik believes that the Rohit Sharma-led side has a couple of key areas where they may still need to improve. In a recent interaction, Karthik was asked about India's chances in the World Cup and he made it clear that they first need to use the upcoming Asia Cup as an opportunity to make the final tweaks to the team composition. When asked about the exact places which need fine tuning, he spoke about the fast-bowling options and the dilemma surrounding the middle-order batting.

"There are two areas (India must identify at the Asia Cup)," Karthik said during a World Cup commercial shoot with Emirates. "No.1. Who is the fourth medium pacer. We have Jasprit (Bumrah), we have (Mohammad) Shami and we have (Mohammad) Siraj. We are sure about all of these three, but who is going to be the fourth?

"Is it going to be Shardul Thakur? Is it going to be Prasidh Krishna? Mukesh Kumar? Or are you going to go for the pace of Umran Malik?," he added.

Karthik was also concerned about the possible choices when it comes to the middle-order.

"Do we need a left hander? Do we look at Tilak Varma or is Suryakumar (Yadav) that option as he plays all the sweeps that are available in the game, makes it hard for spinners and is a very good player of spin as well.”

"So who is the back-up batter. That is the next question. These are the two areas for me and I think these are the two big things India must be answering during this Asia Cup," he concluded.