India vs South Africa – “…In This State Of Mind”: Ex-Chief Selector On Team India’s ‘Comeback Man’ Dinesh Karthik

MSK Prasad also feels that the team management needs to figure out its best batting order soon and go with that in the World Cup.

Dinesh Karthik is back in the Team India fold after a long absence and the spotlight is firmly on him ahead of the India vs South Africa T20I series. At the ripe old age of 37, not many would have expected him to make yet another comeback to the national team. But such was Karthik’s impact in the IPL 2022, that the selection committee and the team management has been forced to bring him back.

Karthik has made no bones about the fact that he wants to help the national team lift the ICC T20 World Cup later this year and his match winning performances as a finisher for RCB in the IPL have gone a long way in earning him that India call-up again.

Karthik was also part of India’s squad for the 2019 ICC World Cup as a back-up option for MS Dhoni. The man who picked him in the squad was former chairman of selectors MSK Prasad. The former India cricketer spoke to NDTV about Karthik and said he had not seen him in this frame of mind in the latter’s more than a decade-long career.

“It is really impressive how he performed in certain situations. I have not really seen Dinesh Karthik in this state of mind in the last one and half decade. He is in the best frame of mind so that’s a reason,” Prasad said.

“He made his selection inevitable. Now that he is here again, he will get his opportunities, he can make an impact. Not many players are there in that particular role (finisher’s). Probably, the selectors would have felt to give him one last try, because of the form he has exhibited in the IPL,” he added.

MSK Prasad also feels that the team management needs to figure out its best batting order soon and go with that in the World Cup.

“We need to set our batting order. Even in the last T20 World Cup, we were found a little wanting in that front,” Prasad said.

India have the likes of Pakistan, South Africa and Bangladesh in its group in the Super 12 stage.