India vs South Africa: Sunil Gavaskar indirectly slams Gautam Gambhir over Dinesh Karthik's place in T20 World Cup squad

Dinesh Karthik has been making most of his lost time with the Indian cricket team with match-winning efforts in the ongoing India vs South Africa T20 series. He smashed another quickfire fifty to take his side to a win in the 4th T20 vs Proteas. Contrary to the wish of the fans that Karthik should go to the T20 World Cup in Australia, former India  batter Gautam Gambhir had said that he should not get picked India squad if his place is not guaranteed in the playing XI. Gambhir said that Axar should be preferred over him at No 7 as he brings the bowling ability with him. And Karthik only getting 3 or 4 overs to bat No 7 will always tough scenarios.  

"Too early to say. T20 World Cup is far ahead. He needs to consistently perform till then but if he wants to bat only in the last three overs, things could get tough. India will definitely be looking at someone in the top 7 who can bowl and if Axar is batting at 7, the team would be a batter short,” Gambhir had said on Star Sports.

"In such a case I would not have him (Karthik) in the World Cup Squad. I would definitely have people like Rishabh Pant, and Deepak Hooda (in the team). We have got KL Rahul, we've got Suryakumar Yadav, Rohit Sharma. Once they come back, it's going to be tough for Dinesh Karthik to find a place in the playing XI. If he doesn't have a place in the playing XI, there's no point giving him a place in the squad," Gambhir further said.

Indian batting legend Sunil Gavaskar disagrees with Gambhir and without naming him questioned his analysis on Karthik. While speaking to Star Sports he said that how can anyone know if his place is not in plaing XI. "I know people are talking about how can you include him in the team when he's not going to play. How do you see he's not going to be able to play? He could be the guy you want. You look at the form and not reputations, names and then you pick the guy," Gavaskar said.