Rishabh Pant was widely tipped to travel to England as the secondary wicket-keeper, but the selectors decided to pick Dinesh Karthik over him owing to more experience. The young man conceded that he was disappointed, but he has not let that come in his way as he took to Twitter to cheer for Virat Kohli and team.
“Donning the blue for the nation is a feeling nothing else can even come close to Wishing Team India a killer run to the Bring it, home boys !! Good luck @BCCI #JaiHind,” Rishabh wrote on his Twitter.
“It’s definitely a case where we debated for long. We all felt that either Pant or Karthik will come in the playing XI if Dhoni is injured. We all felt if the injury happens in the semi-finals, wicket-keeping also matters, so that is the reason why we went for Karthik instead of Pant,” MSK Prasad, the Chairman of selectors told reporters at the time of announcing the squad.
{{/usCountry}}“It’s definitely a case where we debated for long. We all felt that either Pant or Karthik will come in the playing XI if Dhoni is injured. We all felt if the injury happens in the semi-finals, wicket-keeping also matters, so that is the reason why we went for Karthik instead of Pant,” MSK Prasad, the Chairman of selectors told reporters at the time of announcing the squad.
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Pant scored 488 runs from 16 matches for Delhi Capitals in the recently concluded Indian Premier League (IPL). He was instrumental in taking his team to the playoff stages of the tournament.
The player posses big hitting skills but his wicket-keeping abilities have always come under scrutiny. However, he worked hard to improve his skills and shown impressive work behind the stump in IPL.
Indian fifteen-member squad for World Cup: Virat Kohli (c), Rohit Sharma (vc), Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Vijay Shankar, MS Dhoni (wk), Kedar Jadhav, Dinesh Kartik, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Bumrah , Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammad Shami.
The 50-over tournament will take place in England and Wales from May 30 to July 14. India will open their World Cup campaign against South Africa on June 5.
(With inputs from ANI)