T20 World Cup semi-finals: Will Rishabh Pant replace Dinesh Karthik in India’s playing XI against England?

Rishabh Pant blew a good opportunity to replace Dinesh Karthik in the Indian Playing XI for the ICC T20 World Cup 2022 semifinals. Rishabh Pant was given a chance to play in India’s last Super 12 Group 2 game against Zimbabwe in Adelaide by Rohit Sharma. This was Pant’s maiden appearance with the bat in T20 WC 2022. 

Dinesh Karthik, with scores of 1, 6, and 7, has fallen short of expectations. Despite having faced only 22 balls, he is in Australia to score quick runs. The stage was set for him to face Bangladesh, but a misunderstanding with Virat Kohli leading to run-out ended his chances. Apart from team management’s support, DK now has little to show for it.

With all of the factors in mind, Rishabh Pant was anxious to make his imprint on the game, but he failed miserably. The dynamic wicketkeeper-batter was promoted to bat at No. 4, but his stay on the field was brief, as he was dismissed with a score of 3 from 5 balls.

Ryan Burl made a spectacular catch of Pant at wide long-on. Pant was kneeling to play the slogsweep, but Burl ran to his left and made a spectacular diving catch.

Pant did not capitalize on his opportunity. Pant’s future in this competition is pretty uncertain at this point.

Rishabh Pant was preparing for a comeback. Even against Bangladesh, he was expected to replace Karthik, who had a back issue. However, Team India chose Karthik over Pant because he recovered in quick time.

Dinesh Karthik’s returns have dwindled over the last two months.After an average campaign in Asia Cup, Karthik had a couple of a good knocks against South Africa.

However, in Australia, he has endured a poor run.He has scores of 1, 6 and 7 against Pakistan, SouthAfrica, and Bangladesh.

Rishabh Pant on the other hand has also endured a poor run.In 2022, Pant has scored 338 runs in 17 innings at a strike rate of 136.84.

It will be interesting to see who will keep the wickets for india in thesemi-final against England on November 10.

Notably, the BCCI selection committee has already begun to look past Karthik following the T20 World Cup, since the veteran was not chosen for India’s tour of New Zealand. There is also a chance that Karthik has played his final game for India.

READ| Watch: Virat Kohli spotted holding his chest, gasping for breath while batting vs Zimbabwe