Former Indian opener Kris Srikkanth has shared his opinion on the role of finishers in the team. Srikkanth said a batter who takes his team from the eighth over to the 20th over is also a finisher in his book. The former Indian selector said Dinesh Karthik is good but guys like Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant, and Hardik Pandya are actual finishers.
Meanwhile, Dinesh Karthik has been assigned the role of finishing the innings by the Indian team management. In fact, it has been noticed that Karthik is mostly sent after 15 overs to help India finish the innings on a high.
Karthik has been in great form in the recent past as he had scored 330 runs in 16 matches for Royal Challengers Bangalore in IPL 2022 at an average of 55 and a strike rate of 183.33. The veteran right-hander also scored a blistering knock of 41 runs off just 19 balls in the first T20I against West Indies.
On the other hand, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant, and Hardik Pandya all can play the finisher role as they have the skills to bat aggressively in the death overs. All of these batters are a nightmare for the opposition if they can get going in the last few overs.
“You have Rishabh Pant, who is a brilliant finisher. You have Hardik Pandya, who is a brilliant finisher too. I think I would like to clarify that a finisher is a guy who takes the team from the 8th over and goes on till the 20th over,” Srikkanth said on Star Sports show ‘Follow The Blues’.
“What do you mean by a finisher? In my book, the finisher is the guy who can take the batting from the 8th or 12th over and go on till the 20th over, and win the match for India. He starts from the 8th or the 6th over, but where is the good finisher? KL Rahul is a good finisher, Rohit Sharma is a good finisher. They go opening by the way. I just can’t say that you bat the last 5 overs and say he’s a finisher.”
Srikkanth revealed that Dinesh Karthik will definitely find a place in his team for the Asia Cup.
“I would like to term Dinesh Karthik, he definitely finds a place in my team too.”
India has a lot of depth in their batting and all of these batters have performed consistently except for Rishabh Pant, who would like to deliver the goods.
India will kick off their Asia Cup campaign against Pakistan on 28th August at Dubai International Cricket Stadium, Dubai.
