These are the two big things India must be answering – Dinesh Karthik poses questions after announcement of India’s squad for Asia Cup 2023

India announced their 17-man squad for the upcoming Asia Cup which saw the return of some senior players and the selection of some young players who will have a major role to play. RCB wicket-keeper, Dinesh Karthik, however, had a series of questions lined up for the Indian selectors.

Karthik raised a few concerns about a couple of areas that would need some work to be done upon before the Men in Blue can launch themselves in their mightiest avatar, particularly in the year of the World Cup.

Talking to ICC about India’s medium pace options, DK said, “There are two areas (India must identify at the Asia Cup). No.1. Who is the fourth medium pacer. We have Jasprit (Bumrah), we have (Mohammad) Shami and we have (Mohammad) Siraj. We are sure about all of these three, but who is going to be the fourth? Is it going to be Shardul Thakur? Is it going to be Prasidh Krishna? Mukesh Kumar? Or are you going to go for the pace of Umran Malik?”

He further added, “Do we need a left-hander? Do we look at Tilak Varma or is Suryakumar (Yadav) that option as he plays all the sweeps that are available in the game, makes it hard for spinners and is a very good player of spin as well. So who is the back-up batter? That is the next question. These are the two areas for me and I think these are the two big things India must be answering during this Asia Cup.”

India’s chief selector, Ajit Agarkar, confirmed that Ishan Kishan is being looked at as the back-up opener while KL Rahul has been included in the side as a wicket-keeper batter. He also mentioned that Sanju Samson is going to be the standby batter for India in the upcoming continental extravaganza.