IND vs SA: Former captain Sunil Gavaskar clashed with Gautam Gambhir over Dinesh Karthik
Karthik played a stormy innings of 55 runs in 27 balls against South Africa in the fourth T20. He hit nine fours and two sixes in his innings. During this his strike rate was 203.70.
Former India opener Gautam Gambhir, seeing Dinesh Karthik's performance in three matches, said that he should not be kept in the team for the T20 World Cup. Gambhir had said that, "If there is no place for Karthik in the playing XI (for the T20 World Cup), then there is no point in keeping him in the team." On this former India captain Sunil Gavaskar has disagreed. Gavaskar said that Karthik could be the man Team India is looking for. He did not name Gambhir, but the target was on that side. Gavaskar told the broadcaster after the match on the show, “I know people are talking about how can you include him in the team when he is not playing? How can you tell he won't be able to play? You select a player on the basis of form and not reputation and name.
Karthik played a stormy innings of 55 runs in 27 balls against South Africa in the fourth T20. He hit nine fours and two sixes in his innings. During this his strike rate was 203.70. Karthik has been playing T20 for 16 years. In these 16 years, he has played 36 T20s, but this was Karthik's first half-century. Earlier, Karthik's highest individual score was 31 runs, which he scored in 2006. It was also India's first T20 match.
India defeated South Africa by 82 runs in the fourth T20I of the five-match series. Batting first, India scored 169 runs for the loss of six wickets in 20 overs. In reply, South Africa could only manage 87 runs in 16.5 overs for the loss of nine wickets.
Gavaskar said that no one should see Kartik's age. They should see how Karthik is scoring runs at the best strike rate in tough conditions. "Karthik doesn't get many chances in the lower order. They get a chance to bat at the sixth or seventh order. You can't expect him to always score 50 runs. If Karthik makes 40 off 20 balls, then his work will be done. For these reasons, Karthik deserves a place in the team. He wants to play for India. Next year is the ODI World Cup. I think he would like to be available for that as well. Not one's age, but one's performance should be seen.