Team India suffered an unceremonious exit from the 2022 T20 World Cup after losing the semi-final clash against England by 10 wickets. After the Men in Blue failed to end their ICC trophy drought, several questions were raised about Rohit Sharma's captaincy and the overall team selection by the Indian captain and coach Rahul Dravid. One of the burning questions was: why did Yuzvendra Chahal not play even a single game in the competition?
Chahal was among the two Indian players who didn't feature in even a single game throughout the tournament despite being touted as India's two best bowlers leading up to the competition. Ravichandran Ashwin was preferred over Chahal despite the former not performing to his lofty standards.
Dinesh Karthik, who was part of India's disappointing campaign in Australia, opened up on the Chahal vs Ashwin debate and said that the leg-spinner could have done 'more damage' than the Tamil Nadu veteran.
"These are all calls that are taken by the captain and coach with the belief they had in a certain player," Karthik told Cricbuzz.
"To be fair, Ashwin started the tournament well but probably didn’t end well. But Chahal would’ve definitely made a lot more damage, it could’ve been an interesting choice. But hindsight is a very interesting thing to look at once the results come out," he added.
Ashwin finished the tournament with six scalps in five outings at an economy rate of 8.15. Meanwhile, Chahal ended the year as the third-leading wicket-taker for India in T20Is with a tally of 23 scalps in 21 matches. The leg-spinner was the most successful bowler for India in 2022, bagging 44 wickets in 35 matches in all formats combined.