Sunil Gavaskar wants finisher Dinesh Karthik in Indian team for upcoming series

Former India captain Sunil
Gavaskar feels veteran wicketkeeper-batter Dinesh Karthik is set to make a
comeback in the Indian team for the T20I home series against South Africa and
the tour of England. India’s T20I series against South Africa starts after the
IPL. After the home series, India will travel to England to play three ODIs and
as many T20Is and a Test which was abandoned due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

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“The way the IPL is
going for him at the moment, I do believe he should be very much in the running
for the India spot in the October tournament, maybe even earlier for South
Africa, for England, I do believe he should be earlier in the team,”
Gavaskar told Sports Today.

Karthik, 36, has been in
terrific form in IPL 2022, playing the finisher’s role for the Royal
Challengers Bangalore. In fact, Karthik is RCB’s second-highest run-scorer this
season with 274 runs in 12 matches. But what has been most impressive about his
batting is his strike rate. Karthik has maintained a strike rate of 200 this
season.

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Gavaskar said he would like
to see Karthik bat at No. 6 or 7 where he has been batting in the IPL now.

“I would definitely
look at him as a batter who can come in at No. 6 or No. 7 like he is doing for
RCB and take the game away from the opposition,” Gavaskar added.

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The former opener also said
that Karthik was desperate to make a comeback to the Indian team even when he
was doing commentary assignments.

“I spent a lot of time
with him last year. We spent about 10-12 days in quarantine in Belgrade, Serbia
where we practically sort of spending 12 to 14 hours a day, eating lunch,
dinner, and breakfast. Spending time with him, I got to see how keen he was to
come back to the Indian team. He was keen to come back to the team that played
in the UAE last year. That didn’t quite happen. It was perhaps a little too
close. The IPL that year didn’t go all that well for him,” Gavaskar said.