Just when Indian team seemed to have found an ideal player for India at number 4 in KL Rahul, Shikhar Dhawan picked up an injury and Rahul had to be moved into the opening position. Vijay Shankar batted for India at that position before he was replaced by Rishabh Pant for the match against England on Sunday.
Virat had backed Shankar before the match but said he was ruled out due to a toe-niggle. Rishabh Pant had an ordinary match with the bat, scoring 32 off 29. But Former Indian spin bowler Murali Kartik cannot digest the logic of preferring Pant over Dinesh Karthik, who was already there in the original squad. Pant was flown in as a replacement for Dhawan but got the nod ahead of Karthik.
“For me, I would have picked Dinesh Karthik ahead of him. What’s funny is that one day ago Virat Kohli goes that you should give all the support to Vijay Shankar, it won’t be too long before he gets runs and they did the same with Ambati Rayudu as well that he is our nominated number four and then he gets dropped. I don’t think it sends a great signal, personally, I am a bit surprised,” Murali told ESPNCricinfo.
“I know he is a flashy player but he hasn’t done anything of repute in ODI cricket and if these are the kind of signals cricketers are going to get then obviously people are going to think that there are more things at play rather than cricket merit alone,” he added.
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