Ricky Ponting Says "He'd Be Surprised If" This India Star Is Not In T20 World Cup Squad

Impressed by his performances during the Indian Premier League (IPL 2022), former Australia captain Ricky Ponting feels veteran wicketkeeper-batter Dinesh Karthik should be in India's squad for the upcoming T20 World Cup in Australia. Karthik scored 330 runs during IPL 2022 for RCB , striking at an impressive strike rate of 183.33. As a result, Karthik was recalled to the Indian side after almost three years for the ongoing five-match T20I series against South Africa. Ponting said that he'll be surprised if Karthik fails to find a place in the Indian squad for the T20 World Cup later this year.

"I would have him, and I'd have him in at that five or six role probably. The way that he finished games for RCB this year, he took his game to another level. Rishabh (Pant) will probably keep the gloves, there's no doubt about that, but Dinesh was exceptional," Ponting said on the ICC Review.

"Virat (Kohli) having the year he's had, Maxi (Glenn Maxwell) started the tournament really well...but DK was the one. And Faf too I guess, who kept the RCB bandwagon rolling. I'd be surprised if he's not in there (India) line-up somewhere," he added.

Ponting also said that Karthik had more positive impact on RCB than other RCB players.

"When you look at the IPL, you want your better players to maybe be able to win two or three, maybe four games through the season. If you can get that out of them, it's probably going to be a really good return. But Dinesh probably had a bigger impact on a lot of the games than most of the other RCB players did this year," he added.
 

Topics mentioned in this article

India Cricket Team Royal Challengers Bangalore Dinesh Karthik Ricky Ponting Cricket