'I just saw him finish one match' - Ex-India spinner criticised selectors for backing Dinesh Karthik in the team

Dinesh Karthik (Source; Twitter)

India crashed out of the 20-20 World Cup 2022 due to a hammering that they got against England in the semifinal. They scored 168-6 with the bat and then they were found looking for answers when Jos Buttler and Alex Hales smashed a record 170-run partnership for England. The target was chased down by the Three Lions in just 16 overs.

The aftermath of the world event was even more disastrous for India as the selection committee of the India Team which consisted of Chetan Sharma, Sunil Joshi, Harvinder Singh and Debashish Mohanty was sacked. Now Maninder Singh, the former India spinner, has come down hard on the selectors for sticking with Dinesh Karthik for a long time.

Karthik earned a call-up to the Indian Team on the back of an impressive show at the Indian T20 League for the Bangalore franchise where he scored 330 runs at a strike rate of 183.33. He was the ideal foil for the Bangalore side in the middle order but could not replicate the same form for the Indian Team. He just scored 14 runs from four matches. He did not play the all-important semi-final against England.

I don't know why India backed him for so long: Maninder Singh

“I don’t know how India backed Dinesh Karthik for so long. I saw him finish just one match, that too the Nidahas Final four years ago," said Maninder Singh, who was quoted as saying in News 18. "Even in the T20 World Cup, he was backed to the hilt and it felt like he was under pressure due to that finisher’s tag. So if someone is not performing then you need to make changes." Rishabh Pant played in place of Karthik against Zimbabwe and England and even he did not deliver the goods.

“We already made the mistake of not playing wrist spinner in the T20 World Cup and we also aren’t taking any wrist spinner for the ODIs in the Bangladesh tour. If you don’t play bowlers like Kuldeep regularly then how will you know what they can offer with the build-up to the World Cup?," added Maninder. He also said that the selectors are repeating their old mistakes.