Dinesh Karthik, India’s senior keeper-batter, believes that India should consider replacing Axar Patel in the final ODI against Australia with Washington Sundar.
He believes Team India can make use of Sundar’s overs on the powerplay. Washington Sundar, an off-spinner, could be India’s trump card against left-handed opener Travis Head, according to Karthik.
Karthik further stated that the competition will be held at Sundar’s home stadium, the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai.
Dinesh Karthik on Washington Sundar
“I’ll be looking at Washington Sundar because he has the potential to bowl to Travis Head. He’s got a good matchup and is somebody who enjoys bowling in the powerplay. It’s his home ground, and he would have played a lot here. The only change that I can think of is whether we should bring in Washington Sundar so that he can bowl in the powerplay because you won’t see the kind of movement that we have in these two matches in Chennai. So, Washington Sundar in for Axar Patel,” Karthik said.
While Dinesh Karthik believes Sundar should bat in the critical match, veteran India pacer Zaheer Khan disagrees. In the same conversation, he stated that Rohit Sharma and company are unlikely to change their lineup.
Zaheer stated that the home team has already gained an extra spinner in the form of Axar Patel, who took the position of Shardul Thakur in the second match. He stressed that the batting unit had been a source of concern.
“It’s not about looking at the personnel or changing anything in that team. It’s about understanding the conditions and seeing what Chennai brings. You might have that extra spinner, which you already have. I don’t think they are going to make any changes to the playing XI. But they certainly need to do things around how to plan the batting innings,” he said.
India’s batting let them down in the second ODI of the three-match series at Visakhapatnam on Sunday. The Men in Blue were defeated by Australia for 117 runs, their lowest-ever ODI score at home.
The visitors made a joke of the low target, chasing it down in 11 overs with 10 wickets to spare, inflicting India their biggest-ever loss in terms of balls to left in the format.
Karthik isn’t worried about India’s humiliating loss
Dinesh Karthik went on to say that India should not be concerned after their 10-wicket loss to Australia because they had been very steady this year. He stated that it was only a one-time occurrence in which the team faltered in such a way. The experienced keeper advised the club to move on from the loss and concentrate on the upcoming third game.
“Australia were head and shoulders above India today. These kinds of games happen. It’s an anomaly, and you need to forget it. Very rarely do these happen. Ideally, if you are playing good cricket, it should happen very rarely. And to be fair, India have had a very dominating start to the year. They have been very consistent. This has been an anomaly of a game, put this aside and move on to the next game,” he said.
India has recently done well in 50-over cricket. Their eight-match winning streak came to an end with a loss in the second ODI.
