Gavaskar Wants DK As Batter In Indian T20 World Cup Team, Little Master Endorses Kartik’s Classy Form, His World Cup Dream!

Dinesh Karthik has thrown his hat in the ring for a place in the Indian team for the ICC Men’s World Twenty20 in the Australian summer this year. The smart stumper from Chennai is 36 and the selectors — all bowlers — believe that the keeper-batter who has played in two Twenty20 World Cups in 2007 and 2010, and scored 57 runs in five innings for an average of 11.40 has to be put on trial again for the big event Down Under. Karthik played his last Twenty20 international in February 2019.  He has now been selected for the five match Twenty20 series against South Africa to be played at five cities from June 9. Rishabh Pant is in the squad as first ‘keeper and vice-captain to KL Rahul and so Karthik will play as a specialist batter. None other than Sunil Gavaskar pushed his case saying: “Form is important. They say form is temporary and class is permanent and if a classy player is in form, then you must pick him. The way he is batting currently he should be considered and included as a pure batter and wicket-keeping should be an added option. Don’t think about his age.” For Royal Challengers Bangalore in the IPL-15, Karthik scored 177 @no7 in seven innings with a strike rate of 11 plus an over.