Former Indian wicket-keeper batter Dinesh Karthik has opined that he would have personally persisted with Bhuvneshwar Kumar but backs the fast bowler to make a solid comeback. Kumar is playing for India after a long gap of four years and he hasn’t been able to hit the ground running against New Zealand.
Bhuvneshwar returned with figures of 0-40 in his quota of four overs against the Kiwis in the third T20I. The veteran seamer’s pace was down and he also failed to swing the ball. In the first two games of the series, Kumar had taken a solitary wicket and also proved expensive.
The UP seamer has conceded his runs at an economy rate of 11.58 in the series so far.
“Personally, I would have persisted with him, knowing the pedigree he has. We don’t know whether he is being rested and the bowlers are being rotated or whether he has been dropped. If he has been dropped, you can understand. He has played three games, bowled 12 overs, and it has not gone according to the plan. He sets lofty standards for himself, and I don’t think he has bowled up to the standards that he usually does,” Dinesh Karthik said on Cricbuzz.
“He is not someone who is going to sit and moan about it. He will take it on his chin. Knowing him, he will come back stronger. If this means he is not a part of the squad from here on, then that is quite hard. I do feel that, with the kind of success he has shown and the consistency he has shown in a premier tournament like the IPL, he will warrant a few more chances; he deserves a few more chances, and when he gets those, I have no doubt that he will show the world how good he is,” Karthik elaborated.
Vaibhav Sooryavanshi was also dropped from the playing XI as Ishan Kishan made a comeback after recovering from injury.
