SAvIND: Dinesh Karthik replaces Saha, flys to South Africa for 3rd Test

Wicket-keeper batsman, Dinesh Karthik who currently plays as a batsman in the blue jersey because of the presence of MS Dhoni in the limited overs cricket has been named in the third and last test match in India”s tour to South Africa to be played from January 24. It is because Wriddhiman Saha suffered upper left hamstring tendon injury during the training session ahead of the second test.

Dinesh Karthik is placed in the test side for team India after a long gap of 8 years and will join the team ahead of the third test to be held in Johannesburg. He made his test debut in 2004, the last time he featured in the longer version of the game was in January 2010 against Bangladesh.

Parthiv Patel is currently playing the second test match. He was the backup keeper for the test match series. He missed key chances both behind the stumps and bat in the first three days of the test match and might well be left out of the third test if he does not deliver in the second innings.

It is highly likely that Dinesh Karthik will play the third test after his good performances since his comeback during India”s tour to West Indies in the previous year. He can use the opportunity to his advantage as Saha too failed to perform in the first test with the bat scoring 0 and 8 runs in both innings respectively.

He scored 183 runs in 7 ODI innings that included 2 fifties at an average of 61 in 2017 ODIs. He has played 23 tests for India and has managed 1000 runs in 37 innings.

– by James Kuanal