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Abu Dhabi: Former South Africa all-rounder Lance Klusener feels that the move to carry on with Dinesh Karthik in the playing XI for India in the T20 World Cup 2022 wasn’t necessarily a wrong move and India didn’t have much of a choice leading upto to the quadrennial event – given the fact that Rishabh Pant wasn’t in great form either, more in T20Is than any other format. Klusener was roped in as the head coach of Morrisville Samp Army in the Abu Dhabi T10 tournament that saw his team get off to a winning start against Bangla Tigers on Thursday, December 24, 2022.
“Look, there’s going to be a chat about playing one guy here, and when MS Dhoni stopped playing, they were really looking for a finisher, and Karthik did that well for a period of time. Let’s not forget that. And he was the kind of player who was going to play Dhoni’s role. And one World Cup does not make him a bad player. It just did not work out for them at that time,” the former South African cricketer told india.com in an exclusive chat on the sidelines of his team’s practice session.
Going on to expain his stance, Klusener said that when a plan has worked for the team, it only makes sense to carry on with the same plan and Karthik did well with the bat at the end of the innings, playing the role of finisher – so the decision to play him did make sense.
“I’m not backing any move. I’m just saying that was their plan. which might not have worked, but it has worked in the past, and they carried on with that. And you know that Rishabh Pant hasn’t been in the best shape of his life either in terms of his form, so they were kind of forced to try and make another plan. I don’t think it is about right or wrong, but now, after the World Cup, you will want to look at a younger guy like Pant and give him the confidence to find him a place in the team and give him purpose,” added Klusener.
Talking about India’s disappointing show in ICC events, Klusener agreed with Moeen Ali, who is the captain of Morrisville Samp Army in the Abu Dhabi T10 competition – that India need to probably have the right people in right places. Moeen gave much of the credit to former England captain Eoin Morgan for their white-ball success – much of it was because of the environment that was created by him.
“I think Moeen answered that question pretty well with their experience of white ball cricket, which is getting around with people when they are not doing so well and having a long-term plan. The same applies with India. If you’ve got the IPL or PSL in Pakistan or 100-ball cricket, you still need to have people in the right places, so that is something India might be looking at in their team composition.
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