Dinesh Karthik Wants To Take Up MS Dhoni’s Role In The Indian T20I Team

The veteran wicketkeeper batsman Dinesh Karthik is eyeing the finisher’s role in the Indian T20I team. Karthik, who has been out of favour since India’s elimination from the ODI World Cup 2019, thinks he can play the role that the former Indian captain MS Dhoni has played for India over a long period of time.

Karthik has been having a great time playing for Tamil Nadu in the ongoing Vijay Hazare Trophy. He has not only scored runs for his state side on a consistent basis, he has scored those runs at a fair clip as well. His strike rate of 135.79 is the highest strike rate among those batsmen who have scored more than 300 runs in the tournament.

Karthik reckons his performance in the T20 internationals that he played for India before the ODI World Cup was pretty good, but his failure in the ODI World Cup somehow got him left out of the T20 set-up as well.

According to Karthik, India need a batsman at the moment who can read the game well batting lower down the order and he is an ideal fit for that role because he is accustomed to finishing the innings both in the domestic circuit as well as in the IPL.

“I feel that I’m well suited to play that role Dhoni has played for so many years now. I’ve been doing that for KKR and Tamil Nadu. So, if a slot opens up there, that is something I’ll be really looking forward to.” Karthik was quoted saying by ESPNcricinfo.

As far as Dhoni is concerned, he has kept himself away from the game since the completion of the World Cup. His future in international cricket is uncertain. The newly elected BCCI president Sourav Ganguly will have a meeting with the national selectors on the 24th of this month where he will discuss Dhoni’s future with them.