Published: Nov 14, 2022, 05:45 PM (IST)
Edited: Nov 14, 2022, 06:03 PM (IST)
New Delhi: Former Pakistan leg-spinner Danish Kaneria feels that the decision to go with Dinesh Karthik instead of Rishabh Pant as the wicket-keeper for India in the T20 World Cup 2022 was the right call, adding that the left-hander has done well in Test cricket and ODIs and not so in the shortest format of the game. While Karthik played for India in the first four matches in the group stages of the tournament, Pant got his opportunity in the last group league match for India against Zimbabwe and was retained in the playing XI against England in the semi-final.
In an exclusive conversation with CricketCountry, Kaneria said, “For Rishabh Pant, you will have to understand which format he has done well. He has done well in ODIs and Test cricket. Leaving out Pant was the right call and with the opportunity Dinesh Karthik got and the role that he was given, he was doing really well. You don’t change anything if it doesn’t work in 2-3 games. And if you play Rishabh Pant as an X-factor, you have to realise, you will have to send him early. You get Suryakumar Yadav down the order. But send him early. In a semi-final, you are playing Rishabh Pant and when KL Rahul got out, they should have sent Rishabh Pant to get runs going and give him license to kill. Unfortunately, no one in the dressing room can think out of the box,” said Kaneria
Talking about India’s performance, the former Pakistan leg-spinner reckoned that India’s performance in the tournament was way below-par and the lucrative Indian Premier League (IPL) did play a part in that.
“India’s performance in this World Cup was not up to the mark. We also need to look at the games India played. There are three big teams that they had to play with and out of the three big teams, they lost to two big teams. They lost to South Africa and then they lost to England. And other than that, they played against Bangladesh, same venue and same ground and they were chasing down and almost won that game. Overall looking into the Indian team, very sad to see that a lucrative IPL – 90 per cent revenue generated and everything but can’t handle the pressure of a knock-out game,” Kaneria added.
“India won the T20 World Cup in South Africa in 2007 under MS Dhoni. In 2008, the IPL started. In 2011, India won the 50-over World Cup and that is it. After the IPL, India has not won a single T20 ICC tournament. And if you look closely, in ICC events, most of the Indian players get injured. In a major event like World Cup, Bumrah and Jadeja are not available. And where did the injury come from? It is the IPL because they are playing too many games. I think they need to look into this IPL thing and see that their main players have to cut down on the number of matches they play. So the franchise needs to look into this,” Kaneria said before signing off.
