On August 28, the Indian team management faced a very tough choice. The decision they needed to make was to whether to go with Dinesh Karthik, who has earned the tag of designated finisher of late or Rishabh Pant who has started to show some promise in the format he has expected to excel. When Rohit Sharma walked out for the coin toss, he revealed that Karthik has earned a place as the wicketkeeper-batter in the current setup.
The bold move divided the fans and pundits. Against Pakistan, Karthik did not to do much finishing as he just took a single to get in-form Hardik Pandya on strike. However, the question remains whether India will persist with old faithful and reinvented Karthik or bring back the unpredictable Pant.
Before the statistics come into play, let’s see the batting position these two get to bat at in the current setup. Had Pant been picked against Pakistan, he would have come in to
bat no.4, the place where Ravindra Jadeja batted. On the other hand, Karthik is in the team purely for the finishing act. He has been assigned the no.7 batting position, a place where he did wonders for Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 and showed some glimpses of it in the blue jersey of late.
Now, let’s take a look at the statistics of the two batters –
Career statistics
In a T20I career that is now over 15 years old, the Tamil Nadu wicketkeeper-batter has scored 592 runs at an average of 28.19 from 19 innings. He has scored runs at a strike rate of 139.95. His solitary century came against South Africa in home T20I series earlier this year.
On the other hand, the 24-year-old has scored 883 runs at an average of 23.86 in 48 innings. His strike rate is 126.32. The southpaw has three half-centuries to his name.
Performance in 2022
Pant has shown signs of improvement of late in T20Is. In 2022, he has scored 260 runs from 13 innings at an average of 26 and a strike rate of 135.41. His half-century came against West Indies.
While Pant has been a regular in the Indian squad across formats, Karthik made a return to the T20I team on the back of a stupendous IPL season at RCB where he was given a specific role. The Indian team management gave him the same role. He scored 193 runs at an average of 21.44 and a strike rate of 133.10.
There is not much to differentiate between the strike rate of two wicketkeeper-batters in this calendar year. However, Karthik’s batting position is to be taken into account. At times, he has walks in to bat when India can’t afford to lose another wicket. He waits to launch an onslaught when he gets more than 3-4 overs to play in the first innings.
Karthik or Pant against Hong Kong?
Karthik is likely to be preferred over Pant in the ongoing tournament as the veteran’s inclusion helps provide balance to the batting order. Suryakumar Yadav or Jadeja can shuffle places according to match situation like it happened against Pakistan when left-arm spinner Mohammad Nawaz was operating in the middle.
Also, persisting with Karthik in Asia Cup will be a litmus test for Karthik's finishing skills. It will also provide a fair idea about the combination India would want for the T20 World Cup 2022 in Australia. Otherwise, India will have T20I series against South Africa and Australia to look for a lethal option in the lower-middle order.
