Dinesh Karthik is currently out of contention to get into team India in any format of the game. He last played for the Men in Blue in the 20-20 World Cup 2022. After that, selectors avoided him for the recent series. Now, reports have come out that Dinesh Karthik will be seen as a commentator in the upcoming Test series against the Aussies.
However, ahead of the series, he opined about the player who can fill the gap of injured Shreyas Iyer in the playing XI of the first Test. While speaking to Cricbuzz, Karthik said that team India need to toss between Suryakumar Yadav and Shubman Gill. However, he shared his vote for the number-one ranked batter in T20Is.
“I personally feel we should play Suryakumar because he is a great player of spin” - Dinesh Karthik
Dinesh Karthik said: “In case Shreyas Iyer is not fit, there is going to be a toss-up between Suryakumar Yadav and Shubman Gill. I personally feel we should play Suryakumar because he is a great player of spin and we are going to play on some interesting wickets that are going to support spin. Give him the opportunity. He has been in red-hot form.”
“The beauty of Indian cricket right now is that somebody who’s in such red-hot form might not be a starter in a format. I feel that Gill is aware that KL Rahul has obviously had a long lineage and has been around for some time. He has done well in tough conditions like those in England. He has not had the best of times in Test cricket in the recent past, but it will still be KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma opening,” he added.
Now, on 8 February, Dinesh Karthik shared his predicted Team India playing XI for the series opener on Twitter. He wrote: “My 11 for first test Kl, Rohit, Pujara, Virat, SKY, Jadeja, K S Bharat, Ashwin, Axar, Shami, Siraj #BGT2023 #1stTest #IndiaVsAustralia”. After seeing that line-up, fans went berserk and slammed the Indian wicketkeeper for not keeping Shubman Gill in the team while giving a debut to Suryakumar Yadav. Some fans also raised questions about including KL Rahul as an opener instead of Gill.
Here is the shared tweet:
My 11 for first test 😊
— DK (@DineshKarthik) February 8, 2023
Kl
Rohit
Pujara
Virat
SKY
Jadeja
K S Bharat
Ashwin
Axar
Shami
Siraj #BGT2023 #1stTest#IndiaVsAustralia
Check out the tweets shared by fans to slam Dinesh Karthik over his predicted playing XI of team India:
Abey KL ko kele lene bhej...he should not be selected even for Ranji..
— Akash J (@Aj25j) February 8, 2023
KL ko enjoy karne do..nayi nayi shadi huyi hai..Gill open karna chahiye.
— Ravi Bhardwaj (@ravibhardwaj10) February 8, 2023
KL parchi ko kahi ki first class me runs bnaaye waha time invest kre..na form na class na performance...seedha 2 mahine chuttii leta h aur series me achanak se open krleta h...mazak bna rkha h...KL rahul ko t20 world cup m le gye kuch contribution nhi ..
— Yash 🇮🇳 (@Joshiiiii___) February 8, 2023
Tum Sach me Expert ho ??? Seriously SKY over Gill..?T20 basis par😂😂🤦🤦
— Maijul Shekh (@MaijulCricket) February 8, 2023
Dk don't mix the formats ,T20 aur test alg alg hota hai what is SKY doing here???
— Afsana~ (@sanaVarun1) February 8, 2023
Didn't expect such bias from DK.
— Mr. A🏏 (@cricdrugs) February 8, 2023
Good to see you are tuning in DK🙇♂️🤣 pic.twitter.com/8KsYbYDutD
— Liam Clarke (@Clarkeyy23) February 8, 2023
gill is out?!
— Siddharth (@siddhar30713680) February 8, 2023