T20 World Cup: Dinesh Karthik looks patchy in nets, Rahul Dravid says ‘call him up tomorrow’ | Cricket News

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ADELAIDE: His place in the team under the scanner, Dinesh Karthik did plenty of drills during an hour-and-a-half 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 match against Bangladesh will be taken on Wednesday, the day of the match.
Karthik scored 1 and 6 in the two matches he batted, and has been struggling with back spasms since attempting a Hardik Pandya bouncer in the match against South Africa at Perth.

Rishabh Pant did not practice on the day and usually players, who have secured their places in the XI, do not come for practice on the eve of the match.
“Yes, he (Karthik) pulled up pretty well today. It was unfortunate that he had that spasm when he jumped to get 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 pulled up pretty well,” Dravid told reporters before the start of the training session.
“So we’ll assess that. We’ll see how it goes, and we’ll see how he gets up tomorrow morning after a good workout today.
“We’ll put him through his paces and make sure we’ve given him a good workout and then see how he goes tomorrow morning before we make a final decision,” the head coach added.
Since Dravid took over as head coach, it has meant that the player is likely to be benched, when he has remained non-committal about a player’s availability.
As you continue to do exercises, Karthik looked hurt and sometimes couldn’t pick up the shots.
Karthik, who is likely to play his last ICC tournament for India, has been given the role of a finisher, and unlike subcontinental pitches, he has struggled against pace and bounce on the Australian wickets.
“Again, hard for someone like DK to assess how he’s gone. Couldn’t play many games. Got one ball against Pakistan at that back end and didn’t bat against Netherlands. Thought he was putting up a pretty good partnership with Surya at that stage,” Dravid said in defense of the Tamil Nadu keeper.
He said that Karthik helping Suryakumar build a partnership should be seen as a positive, although his contribution was only 6 out of those 52 runs.
“We needed that bit of partnership just to get stabilisers, and were just set up for him, but again, that’s the nature of this game.
“You play that high-risk shot and you can get out on that shot, and that’s why people need to be supported and backed up as much as we possibly can in these formats because you — sometimes people, especially in positions like DKs at 5 and 6, you not getting enough balls,” Dravid tried to put things into perspective.
“You don’t get enough stuff, and then when you have to go in, you have to make really high-risk shots without a lot of time to settle.”
Players who play in critical positions need the support of the team, the coach said.
“Yes, our belief has always been to support and support players in those positions so that they come in at the critical time, hopefully they will be in the right frame of mind to be able to play those crutches for us.”
Kohli spend quality time with Rahul
Virat Kohli barely missed an optional session during the World Cup. Despite constant downpour, he was there for the indoor session along with the under-fire KL Rahul, Karthik and Ravichandran Ashwin.
While batting short, Kohli was seen keeping a close eye on Rahul’s batting in the nets and subsequently spent a lot of time dissecting his technique with coach Dravid.
From a distance, Kohli seemed to explain his front foot pressure to the Karnataka man, perhaps trying to meet the ball early, which has been his misfortune so far in the showpiece.



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