'No Rishabh Pant, seriously' - Fans go shocked after removal of Rishabh Pant from the playing XI against Pakistan

India and Pakistan are playing against each other in a high-voltage encounter in the Asia Cup 2022. Both teams are playing first time against each other for the first time since the last encounter in the T20 World Cup 2021. In the match against arch-rivals, Indian skipper Rohit Sharma won the toss and asked Pakistan to bat first.

Advertisment

Apart from the match, there is something shocking that happened just at the time of toss in the match. Actually, the skipper and management went on to replace the star wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant with the senior wicketkeeper-batter Dinesh Karthik in the playing XI against Pakistan.

This omission didn’t go down well with the Indian cricket fans and they expressed their amazement and shock on Twitter.

Here's how fans reacted:

Advertisment

No Rishabh Pant, seriously 😳😳😳#IndvsPak #RishabhPant

— Shikhar (@its_me_shikhar) August 28, 2022

Karthik ahead of #RishabhPant? WTF! @BCCI @RishabhPant17 #IndiaVsPakistan #INDvPAK

— Sarad Pasarri (@spasarri1310) August 28, 2022

DK over Rishabh for this game says Rohit #INDvsPAK #INDvPAK #AsiaCup #RishabhPant #DK

— Baidurjo Bhose (@bbhose) August 28, 2022

Rishab missed out!!! Now that’s a a big surprise!!! #IndiaVsPakistan @RishabhPant17 #RishabhPant

— 𝖗𝖆𝖒𝖉𝖔𝖒𝖓𝖊𝖘𝖘 (@csramachandran) August 28, 2022

So sad for rishab pant #RishabhPant

— Im VaRuN (@ImVaRuN107) August 28, 2022

“It was a tough call we had to take between playing Dinesh and Rishabh, Rishabh sadly misses out. And Avesh makes it as the third seamer. This is an important game for us, but as cricketers we don't want to think about the opposition, we just want to correct whatever mistakes we are doing,” said Rohit Sharma while talking about the playing XI at the time of toss.

Notably, few senior players are back in action in international cricket after a rest. Regular skipper Rohit Sharma was not a part of the team in the recently-concluded ODI series against Zimbabwe. Other than him, former skipper and senior batter Virat Kohli was on a rest from international cricket since the conclusion of the series against England.

Speaking of the previous clash between both teams, then Pakistan won that match by a massive margin of 10 wickets against the Indians. The men in blue are eyeing on to clear off their account with Pakistan for the last defeat. Interestingly, the loss in World Cup 2021 was the first time for India when they lost any match against the arch-nemesis in any match of either of the World Cups.