His place in the team under the scanner, Dinesh Karthik did a lot of keeping drills during an hour and a half’s indoor session at the Adelaide Oval, but didn’t look fully fit.
Team India will head into their penultimate Super 12 Group 2 match of the T20 World Cup 2022 against Bangladesh in Adelaide on Wednesday (November 2) with an aim to more-or-less lock the semifinal berth. The biggest injury worry in the Indian side currently is the fitness of wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik, who left the field mid-way through the last match against South Africa in Perth after clutching his back.
His place in the team under the scanner, Dinesh Karthik did a lot of keeping drills during an hour and a half’s indoor session at the Adelaide Oval, but didn’t look fully fit. Coach Rahul Dravid said that a call on his participation in the T20 World Cup 2022 match against Bangladesh will be taken on Wednesday, the day of the game.
Karthik has scored 1 and 6 in the two games he has batted, and has struggled with back spasms since trying to collect a Hardik Pandya bouncer in the match against South Africa at Perth. Rishabh Pant didn’t train on the day and normally, players, who have their places assured in the XI, don’t come for training on eve of the match.
“Yeah, he’s (Karthik) pulled up pretty well today. It was unfortunate he had that spasm when he jumped to collect a bouncer. I think when he landed badly, he landed in a way that I think he just hurt his back a little bit. But with treatment and with the day – this morning he’s pulled up pretty well,” Dravid told reporters before start of the training session.
“So we’ll be assessing it. We’ll see how it goes, and we’ll see how he pulls up tomorrow morning after a good practice session today. We’ll put him through his paces and ensure that we’ve given him a good workout and then see how he pulls up tomorrow morning before making a final decision,” the head coach added.
Apart from Karthik, all-rounder Axar Patel might also return to the playing XI to give skipper Rohit Sharma more bowling options. India chose to go in with the extra batter for their last match against South Africa in Perth.
IND vs BAN T20 World Cup 2022 Super 12 Predicted Playing 11
India: Rohit Sharma (c), KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Ravichandran Ashwin, Axar Patel, Dinesh Karthik/Rishabh, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Arshdeep Singh, Mohammed Shami
Bangladesh: Nazmul Hossain Shanto, Afif Hossain, Mossadek Hossain, Soumya Sarkar, Shakib Al Hasan (c), Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Liton Das, Nurul Hasan (wk), Mustafizur Rahman, Taskin Ahmed, Hasan Mahmud
