T20 World Cup 2022: Dinesh Karthik or Rishabh Pant, who should India back?

Dinesh Karthik and Rishabh Pant (PC: Twitter)

The T20I World Cup 2022 is round the corner. India will be looking to redeem themselves after their horrendous run in the last edition of the tournament. The team at present is not leaving any stones unturned to lay the foundations for a strong campaign in the mega event.

India has the series of South Africa ahead of them, in which they would look to settle down to a combination for the upcoming World Cup. If we speak about the combination, India is pretty sure about the top order and the bowling combination they are about to use.  But there has been a major discussion about whom to play in the elven between Rishabh Pant and Dinesh Karthik.

Both Pant and Karthik are wicketkeeper-batters who are looked upon as finishers by the team management. Under the present circumstances it looks like that India is backing Dinesh Karthik for the particular role. But what do the stats and deeper analytics say? Who should India actually back?

The role that India is looking for either Pant and Karthik to fill requires particular skill sets.  These are:

• Rotating the strike in the middle overs, if a wicket or two falls early for team India. 
• Taking the attack to the bowlers in the death overs. 

Let us compare the stats of these two players and find out who is more suitable for the role.

Middle Overs

Comparison of Pant and Karthik in the middle overs

So, we see that Rishabh Pant is definitely ahead in the stats for the middle overs. He has less dot percentage and higher strike rate than Dinesh Karthik in the middle overs. On the basis of pure stats in the middle overs, it is Pant who is ahead of Karthik.

Death Overs

Pant and Karthik comparison in Death Overs

If we take into consideration the performances of Dinesh Karthik and Rishabh Pant in the death overs, then clearly Karthik is way ahead of the competition. When it comes to finishing off matches in the final overs a match, definitely Karthik should be the first choice.

Added factors

If Indian is looking for only a finisher who would come in the end of the innings and take on the bowlers from the word go, then Karthik is definitely the answer. On the other Pant is more suited to play the role of a batter who would set up the stage for the team and then go berserk in the end.

Also the presence of  Pant means that there is a left handed batter in the middle order bringing in variety and dynamism in the mix. So, in reality India is actually in need of both of these players. With Hardik Pandya in the eleven, India gets that flexibility to go in with an extra batter in the playing eleven. Hence, India can very well experiment with the combination where both and Pant and Karthik stays a part of the playing eleven.

But still keeping in mind the fact that India is actually trying to look for a hard hitting finisher, Dinesh Karthik seems to be a better option as of now. 

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