Dinesh Karthik Is A Very Tempting Option For The T20 World Cup: Sanjay Manjrekar

According to Sanjay Manjrekar, Dinesh Karthik is an incredibly alluring alternative and has a decent chance of making the Indian team for the forthcoming T20I World Cup in Australia.

As the Tamil Nadu wicketkeeper reinvented himself as a finisher for Royal Challengers Bangalore during this year’s IPL, Karthik’s return to the Indian side has been nothing short of a fairytale. The 37-year-old’s strike rate was 183.33, and he scored 330 runs for his team at an average of 55.

In the just-finished T20I series against South Africa, he continued this form, making an impact with the bat and winning Man Of The Match honours in the fourth game against the Proteas.

Dinesh Karthik Will Have To Keep Reminding The Selkctors That He Is Still Relevant: Sanjay Manjrekar

“I think there’s a good chance that will happen because of him proving his worth. And that series against South Africa, especially in the last game (not the one that didn’t have a result), where he was the player of the match, striking 200 was a show of his ability.

“So yes, he is an extremely tempting option. There’ll be a few matches before the T20I World Cup so I guess he’ll have to keep reminding the selectors that he’s still relevant,” said Manjrekar in an interview with NDTV.

“But it’s just amazing that this guy at this stage of his career has carved a niche for himself. I tweeted also about him where he is one of those rare players in fact one of the first players in the world in T20 Cricket who actually is a specialist kind of cameo batter down the order. He is not somebody who will bat at number three or four and generally bat at number 5, 6, 7 and he will get a few overs, 15-20 balls to make a contribution.

It makes such an impact. Now when you have somebody batting at that position and just getting those many balls as Pollard does, or somebody like Hardik Pandya, when he used to bat lower down., they are another string to the bow. So Dinesh Karthik actually commands a place in this team for his cameo batting,” Manjrekar further added.

Karthik will next be in action against Ireland on Sunday.

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