The semifinal game between the Indian National Cricket Team and New Zealand Cricket Team in the ICC World Cup 2019 broke the heart of the Indian fans, as their team finished the league stage on top of the table and were clear favourites to play the final. But, the dreams have perished when Indian batting lineup collapsed while chasing a low tally. Speaking of the same, Dinesh Karthik revealed his side of the story.
Chasing 240 for a place in the final, India were off to a horrific start as they lost their top-three batsmen inside four overs. Fans and analysts have expected MS Dhoni to take the crease and settle the innings for India. But, it wasn’t the tactic used by Ravi Shastri or Virat Kohli, as they sent Dinesh Karthik over MS Dhoni, who disappointed.
It all happened in a daze – Dinesh Karthik
Speaking to Harsha Bhogle about the semi-final encounter, Karthik has now revealed that he was genuinely surprised by the promotion and added that lack of match practice for the middle-order kind of played its role in the downfall of the Men in Blue on that day.
“It came as a bit of a surprise to me (walking in to bat at five) because they had made it very clear that I would be batting at number seven. We had to send a rearguard action just to stem the flow of wickets,” Dinesh Karthik revealed to Harsha Bhogle.
”I was told to pad up and it all happened in a daze, in a hurry. I was just sitting in my shorts and I had to go up, get ready. Literally, I was late to get in, I wasn’t expecting a wicket to fall. KL (Rahul) got out and I had to put on my pads,” he said.
I had not batted at number 5 for two years:
Dinesh Karthik stated he was caught off-guard after he was asked to bat at No.5 in the 2019 World Cup semi-final against New Zealand. During the chase, after India lost early wickets, Karthik revealed he was asked to go out ahead of MS Dhoni and that came as a surprise for him.
“Throughout the tournament, it was pretty clear that I was going to bat below Dhoni at number seven. I had done that really well in the past. In Australia we’d finished games, in New Zealand, we’d finished games. I had not batted at number five for a couple of years or more. Here I got the opportunity, I went and did the job that was asked of me for the team, which was to arrest wickets.”
However, it wasn’t a great memory to remember but it is what it is. It happens to be the last International game for Dinesh Karthik and never came into reckoning for the national call-up in any format of the game. He is eager to show his calibre in IPL to make a return to National Setup ahead of World Cup.
