IND vs ENG: Rishabh Pant likely to keep his place ahead of Dinesh Karthik for semifinal, say reports

Written By DNA Web Team | Updated: Nov 09, 2022, 02:06 PM IST

The battle between Rishabh Pant and Dinesh Karthik for the wicketkeeping spot is set to intensify further ahead of the semifinal versus England.

Team India will lock horns with England in the semifinal of T20 World Cup 2022 on November 10. While the Men in Blue have won four of their five games at the World Cup so far, there have been some chinks in the armour that they will be looking to iron out. 

The battle between Rishabh Pant and Dinesh Karthik for the wicketkeeping spot is likely to intensify further for the semifinal. While Karthik has started the past four games, Pant returned to the playing XI for the Zimbabwe match and is likely to retain his place against England according to a report in Cricbuzz. 

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The report further states that India are likely to field the same playing XI which started against Zimbabwe. Notably, Karthik has not had the best time with the bat, struggling for runs, whereas Pant also managed to score just 3 runs in 5 balls before getting dismissed in his only outing so far. 

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Even though DK was spotted batting the longest in the nets session on Tuesday, Pant may be preferred over Karthik. This means that Hardik Pandya will have the onus of being the finisher in DK's absence. 

Yuzvendra Chahal is likely to miss out yet again, with Axar Patel being preferred ahead of him, and even though there have been calls from the likes of Akash Chopra and Gautam Gambhir to play Chahal, India are unlikely to alter their plans of messing up with a winning combination. 

The Indian management is considering various factors, including the dimensions of the Adelaide Oval, which is not as huge as the Melbourne Cricket Ground.  

The Men in Blue had a small injury scare as Rohit was hit by the ball on his right forearm in the nets, but he seemed fine and is likely to be okay for the battle against Jos Buttler's Three Lions.