Dinesh Karthik's return to India squad for South Africa T20Is puts pressure on Rishabh Pant

BCCI announced the Indian T20 squad for the home series against South Africa that kickstarts on June 9. One of the key features in this squad is the name Umran Malik. The Jammu-born pacer has bowled the fastest delivery by an Indian at 157 kph in the ongoing IPL 2022. 

He has been rewarded not just for his extra-ordinary skill to bowl consistently at the speed of over 150 kph but also for picking wickets.

The other key feature in the squad is the name of Dinesh Karthik, who had been dropped from the team for no reason since the 2019 ODI World Cup. Dinesh Karthik has played some wonderful innings for Royal Challengers Bangalore in IPL 2022 and hence has been given another chance by BCCI selectors  to shine in the Indian blue jersey. 

.@DineshKarthik, you beauty! _ _

What an amazing half-century this has been from the @RCBTweets right-hander! _ _

Follow the match _ https://t.co/Kp3DueRxD0#TATAIPL | #DCvRCB pic.twitter.com/5doLg3qkXd — IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) April 16, 2022

DK, as he is popularly known as, had shared his wish to play for India again and had been training in the nets very hard for his season of Indian Premier League. The good show with the bat has brought him the result. And if he does well against a full-strength South Africa, it might do wonders for his chances of playing the T20 World Cup 2022 later this year in Australia. 

Not to forget, this T20 squad for South Africa series has many regular faces like Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli missing as they will be boarding the flight to England for the Test and 6 limited-overs matches in July. The T20 squad for World Cup will have limited space and there will be fight for places. One such fight could be between current wicket-keeper and batter Rishabh Pant, who plays all formats and Karthik. 

Karthik has kept wickets well in IPL 2022 and his batting skills needs no introduction. On the contrary, Pant has had an average IPL. Because his leadership skills have been criticised, he needs to make it big in the upcoming T20s vs SA. One thing is for sure that no one's place is currently guaranteed in this Indian T20 squad, moreso after some really good players emerging and re-emerging in IPL 2022. 

T20I Squad - KL Rahul (Capt), Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ishan Kishan, Deepak Hooda, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant(VC) (wk),Dinesh Karthik (wk), Hardik Pandya, Venkatesh Iyer, Y Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, R Bishnoi, Bhuvneshwar, Harshal Patel, Avesh Khan, Arshdeep Singh, Umran Malik — BCCI (@BCCI) May 22, 2022

Let's see who gets the seat in the flight to Australia? Pant or Karthik? Or both? For now, the series vs South Africa will be their next target where they will be itching to do well. 

India's T20I squad: KL Rahul (c), Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ishan Kishan, Deepak Hooda, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant (vc, wk), Dinesh Karthik (wk), Hardik Pandya, Venkatesh Iyer, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, Ravi Bishnoi, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Harshal Patel, Avesh Khan, Arshdeep Singh, Umran Malik