India vs Bangladesh, World Cup 2019: Dinesh Karthik plays first WC match 15 years after making ODI debut

Share

Tweet

Share

Share

Email

Comments

Dinesh Karthik, at 34 made his World Cup debut as India decided to bat first after winning the toss against Bangladesh in their ICC World Cup 2019 group stage match at Edgbaston, Birmingham on Tuesday. Karthik was drafted into the side in place of Kedar Jadhav and is set to bat at No. 4 according to the team sheet. India made one other change, the shorter boundary on one side prompted Virat Kohli to drop Kuldeep Yadav and bring Ravindra Jadeja into side, who will play his first game of this World Cup.

India vs Bangladesh live score and updates

The spotlight, however, was firmly on Dinesh Karthik, who made his World Cup debut 15 years after making his ODI debut in 2004. Karthik was a part of the Indian World Cup squad in 2007 but did not get a game as India were knocked out of the group stages. The 24-year-old Tamil Nadu keeper batsman was not picked for the next two World Cups in 2011 and 2015 but he finally made the cut in 2019.

BCCI✔@BCCI

Our Playing XI for today’s game. DK and Bhuvneshwar Kumar come in in place of Kedar and Kuldeep.

On Tuesday, Karthik was finally handed his World Cup debut in place of Jadhav, who has had an ordinary World Cup so far and was criticised heavily for his approach towards the end of India’s chase against England.

Karthik’s inclusion also marks the first occasion when India fielded three specialist keepers in their playing XI in a World Cup game. Karthik, Dhoni and Pant are playing together in ODI for the first time. They played in a few T20s together and the outcome was not that good. With Rahul having experience of keeping in domestic cricket, India practically have four wicket keeping options against Bangladesh on Tuesday.

“We are going to bat first. It’s a used pitch. In the last game, it was getting slower and slower. Looking at the shorter boundaries, one of wrist spinners — Kuldeep — misses out. Bhuvi comes in. Kedar is not playing and Dinesh Karthik replaces him,” said Kohli after winning the toss.

“Not a bad idea to bowl against India. We love to win this do-or-die match. We have to play our best. Mirz (Mehidy Hasan) is not playing and Rubel is playing. Unfortunately, Mahmudullah isn’t playing and Sabbir Rahman comes in his place,” said Bangladesh skipper Mashrafe Mortaza.

Bangladesh have also made two changes to their line-up. They have included Rubel Hossain and Sabbir Rahman in place of Mehidy Hasan and Mahmudullah.

What the captains said

“We are going to bat first. It’s a used pitch. In the last game, it was getting slower and slower. Looking at the shorter boundaries, one of wrist spinners — Kuldeep — misses out. Bhuvi comes in. Kedar is not playing and Dinesh Karthik replaces him,” said Kohli after winning the toss.

“Not a bad idea to bowl against India. We love to win this do-or-die match. We have to play our best. Mirz (Mehidy Hasan) is not playing and Rubel is playing. Unfortunately, Mahmudullah isn’t playing and Sabbir Rahman comes in his place,” said Bangladesh skipper Mashrafe Mortaza.