India left out Rishabh Pant and chose to go with Dinesh Karthik for the Asia Cup opener against Pakistan, surprising many of its fans. This means India doesn’t have a left hander in the entire squad and sent a strong message that they are going to go with DK the expert finisher. Earlier Indian skipper Rohit Sharma came out and broke the news, saying that ‘unfortunately’ Rishabh Pant has missed out from the playing eleven. Nonetheless, fans were also shocked about the decision and went onto debate this on Twitter.
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Leaving out Rishabh Pant is a huge call and a sign towards the favoured line-up at the T20 World Cup. It is also an acknowledgement of how India want to play with DK as a power finisher. Don’t be surprised to see Jadeja at no 5 today, though.
— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) August 28, 2022
Rishabh Pant is not playing.
— Johns. (@CricCrazyJohns) August 28, 2022
Last year in the WC India’s RHs were exposed by NZ & Pak’s right-to-left spin. India have injected more intent into their batting since then but dropping Pant means they have no frontline LH in their XI. Jadeja may be promoted but is weak v spin. Huge tactical call. #AsiaCup2022
— Freddie Wilde (@fwildecricket) August 28, 2022
Dk plays in place of pant. So happy to be wrong about that! India win a crucial toss. #INDvsPAK https://t.co/whw6HIAXdA
— Abhinav Mukund (@mukundabhinav) August 28, 2022
The decision to return to a top three of Rohit, KL & Kohli was expected but creates tactical risk v SLA & leg spin. Pant missing out is more surprising & compounds the potential issues v spin. The RHs intent against those spinners now becomes even more important. #AsiaCup2022
— Freddie Wilde (@fwildecricket) August 28, 2022
DK over Pant? So no left-handers in top five…well let’s hope it works#IndiaVsPakistan
— Kushan Sarkar (@kushansarkar) August 28, 2022
Earlier India won the toss and opted to field against Pakistan in their Asia Cup opener here on Sunday. Virat Kohli is playing his 100th T20 International and is second player in world cricket after Ross Taylor to complete a century of international appearances. Dinesh Karthik was picked ahead of Rishabh Pant in the playing eleven while Avesh Khan was picked as third pacer alongside Arshdeep Singh and Bhuvneshwar Kumar.
“Honestly, I don’t think the toss is that important, we are just here to play good cricket. We’ve played here in the IPL, so hopefully the pitch will be good. It was a tough call we had to take between playing Dinesh and Rishabh, Rishabh sadly misses out. And Avesh makes it as the third seamer. This is an important game for us, but as cricketers we don’t want to think about the opposition, we just want to correct whatever mistakes we are doing. We are bowling first,” said Rohit Sharma.
India are up against Pakistan for the first time since their ten wicket defeat to the arch rivals at this very same venue. They will certainly be under pressure and would look to avenge their loss in the opening game of the T20 World Cup 2021.
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