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'Don't judge a fish for his ability to climb...': Ex-India opener's Twitter thread settles Pant vs Karthik debate
Aakash Chopra, in a series of tweets, tried to explain the rationale behind India's decision to pick Dinesh Karthik ahead of Rishabh Pant when popular belief is the other way around.
Dinesh Karthik or Rishabh Pant? Rishabh Pant or Dinesh Karthik? This appears to be the biggest question, at least to the outsiders, ahead of the India vs England T20 World Cup semi-final at the Adelaide Oval on Thursday. As far as the Indian team management is concerned, both are equal contenders. But those spending years trying to read between the lines would perhaps bet in favour of Karthik after India captain Rohit Sharma's pre-match press conference on Wednesday.
Barring India's last Super 12 stage match against Zimbabwe, where Rishabh Pant took the gloves, Karthik has been the preferred choice. And according to former India opener Aakash Chopra, there is a tactical reason for that. Chopra, in a series of tweets, tried to explain the rationale behind India's decision to pick Karthik ahead of Pant when popular belief is the other way around.
Chopra said if Pant is picked against England then he has to bat at No.5 which means Hardik Pandya will have to come down to No.6. "There are a lot of arguments in favour of Pant playing in place of DK vs England. But a couple of things to note: 1. If Pant plays, Hardik likely to bat at 6. That reduces his batting impact considerably. 2. Pant has hardly played in this tournament. Form?" Chopra said in his tweet.
In his second tweet, the former opener ruled out the possibility of taking down England leg-spinner Adil Rashid going in Pant's favour. "If taking down leg-spin was the reason, he should’ve played against Pakistan. To counter Shadab and even Nawaz. DK hasn’t done a great deal but the only real chance for him of making an impact was vs SA at Perth. How many (except SKY) scored there?" he wrote.
Finally, he said Karthik will be the preferred choice as India need someone to bat at No.7 and give the finishing touches to the innings which Pant won't be able to do that well.
"Don’t judge a fish for his ability to climb a tree. Or else you’d be disappointed and also, call the Fish a ‘failure’. IMHO, India had to take a call on Pant v DK two months ago. Asia Cup was where you should’ve known who’s the first choice. And then stick with him. Ends," he added.
As far as India's practice session on the eve of the semi-final against England is concerned, it was Pant who batted in the main nets while Karthik sweated it out in the indoor area.
"Rishabh was the only guy who didn't get to play on this tour at all except the two games that we played in Perth. That was an unofficial practice game. But since then he hasn't had a hit, and he was the only guy who was missing some game time, so we wanted to give him some time and have some options, as well, whether if we want to make changes in the semis or the finals, we should be able to do that," Rohit said, clearly indicating that the change against Zimbabwe was a one-off thing and Karthik is the preferred choice.
