"It'll be a big surprise if he is not there"- Sunil Gavaskar wants Indian superstar in Indian T20 WC squad
On Friday, India thrashed South Africa by 82 runs, registering their biggest victory in terms of runs against the Proteas. With this win, Rishabh Pant and his men have now levelled the series 2-2. The fifth and final T20I will be played on Sunday at M.Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru, at 7 pm, which will be the decider of the series.
The anchor of the innings was the veteran wicket-keeper batsman, Dinesh Karthik, who set the tone for the Indian win with a blinder of an innings in the first innings to give the Indian bowlers a competitive target to defend. DK came at a difficult time when India were struggling at 81/4 in 12.5 overs.
With no recognised batsmen left, he added a valuable partnership of 65 runs with Hardik Pandya to help India reach 169/6 in their 20 overs. Then, the Indian bowling line-up led by Avesh Khan just took the match away from South Africa and bowled them out for just 87 runs, their lowest ever total.
Karthik was adjudged "Man of the Match" for his knock of 55 off 27 balls in which he registered his maiden half-century in T20I. The former Indian legendary batsman, Sunil Gavaskar, also lauded the performance of the veteran wicket-keeper, which proved to be a match-winning effort for the Indian team.
In a mid-inning break, Gavaskar said on Star Sports that DK came at the time where scoring quick runs was more important and he did that job amazingly well. Karthik also became the oldest cricketer for India to score a fifty in T20 internationals.
The former batter feels that DK is a must for the Indian team when it comes to the T20 World Cup. Gavaskar concluded, "Don't look at his age, look at what he's doing. If DK is not on that flight to Melbourne, it'll be a big surprise."
Hardik also played a really good innings of 46 off 31 balls. Speaking of the Indian bowling performance, Avesh Khan registered his career-best performance. He ended with a figure of 4/18. Chahal also picked up two wickets.