As the Indian cricket team is moving forward in their journey through the T20I World Cup, the situation around Dinesh Karthik is becoming more intense and interesting.It is clear that the team management has shaped Karthik to be India’s finisher for the T20 World Cup, but on occasions, the way it has treated him with regards to his role in the playing XI has been rather baffling. For example, during the first T20I between India and Australia in Mohali, Karthik was held back, and instead Axar Patel was made to bat ahead of him.With former cricketers raising questions over the move, the call to keep Karthik for the death overs and promote Axar ahead of him was met with plenty of flak.Matthew Hayden said, “I was just thinking about the role of Dinesh. This role Dinesh is playing now, for the life of me, I can’t work out why he wouldn’t be in their batting now. It doesn’t make any sense to me whatsoever. I don’t want to give the impression that I’m disrespecting Dinesh Karthik, but he should be batting more; it’s actually the opposite.”Right after Hayden made the comment on live TV, Axar smashed a straight drive off Cameron Green. However, it was not enough to force Hayden to change his mind. The Aussie great stuck to his point of view and said that while Axar may have shown tremendous credentials with the bat lately, Karthik should get more ball time.He added, “I think he is such a good player that he can come in and play this exact same shot. I question the role that he is playing as a finisher. I think there is a role for him to come up with the order.”Agarkar said, “I find it very strange with regards to Dinesh Karthik. He is a good enough batter to come in now. Doesn’t have to after the 16th over. And, as much as Axar Patel has improved, you have high expectations for Karthik to handle this type of situation.At least you hope he does, considering he is playing ahead of Rishabh Pant as well in this XI. It happened in the South Africa series, and again today, Axar is batting ahead of him.”
