Rishabh Pant and Dinesh Karthik will both be vying for game time. (FILE)Former India captain Gautam Gambhir revealed his playing 11 for India’s inaugural match in the ICC T20 World Cup 2022 against arch-rivals Pakistan.
The Rohit-Sharma-led India will open their account at MCG on October 23, this Sunday.
Gambhir said that if he was the captain, he would pick Rishabh Pant over Dinesh Karthik.
According to the southpaw, Pant should play at No 5 and Hardik at 6 and Axar Patel at 7.
Explaining his decision, Gambhir said that India sends in Karthik to bat only for 8-10 balls per innings which is not the best way forward.
“You don’t pick a batter to play just 10 balls. You pick a batter who can bat for long and Karthik has not been given that role or he has not shown the same intentions himself. He only comes to play 3 or 4 overs in the death. But what if India loses a couple of quick wickets? That is when you need Pant as you don’t want to expose Hardik so early,” said Gambhir
However, he did add that Rohit may opt for Dinesh as has been evident in the net sessions prior to the World Cup.
On Friday, Karthik, after his batting session, did keeping drills for a considerable period of time.
But to be fair to Pant, he is the only left-handed specialist batting option in top six and if both Karthik and Pant are accommodated in the playing XI, then Rohit will be forced to play Pandya as the fifth bowling option, which could backfire on occasions.