"Would Definitely Have Him": Dinesh Karthik Names A Surprise Pick In His India XI

Veteran wicketkeeper-batsman Dinesh Karthik weighed in on the possible playing XI of Team India and listed out the names of players he felt who could feature in the high-octane clash against Pakistan today at the Dubai International Stadium in the ongoing T20 World Cup 2021. Talking to Cricbuzz.com, Karthik sounded extremely impressed by the recent performances of all-rounder Shardul Thakur, not only for Team India but also in the recently concluded Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021.

"Shardul is in great rhythm. He has this knack of picking big wickets, so I would definitely have him in a big game like this. Even in the IPL final, he came in and turned the match around on its head and I don't like him for that. But, for the moment, I genuinely wish he does really well tomorrow if he gets a game," explained Karthik, whose Kolkata Knight Riders lost the IPL final to a Chennai Super Kings (CSK) side featuring Shardul.

Shardul finished with figures of 3/38 in the IPL final, taking the key wickets of Venkatesh Iyer, Nitish Rana and Rahul Tripathi to guide CSK to victory.

Karthik said that Shardul seemed like a confidence player and revelled when things went according to plan.

"He is a confidence player. Normal days he is a confident guy, right now he is probably flying in the air somewhere," he added.

Karthik offered his own playing XI, which featured a couple surprise names.

Karthik's playing XI:

Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Varun Chakravarthy, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar/Mohammed Shami.

Topics mentioned in this article

India Cricket Team Pakistan Cricket Team Dinesh Karthik Virat Kohli Shardul Thakur ICC T20 World Cup 2021 Cricket India vs Pakistan, Super 12 - Match 16