Team India had to shuffle the batting order a bit after Shubman Gill missed out on the first Test against New Zealand. In Gill’s absence Virat Kohli was promoted to the No. 3 spot while Sarfaraz Khan batted at No. 4. Both batters incurred ducks, prompted many to question the decision taken by the head coach Gautam Gambhir and skipper Rohit Sharma. As India’s tactical decisions in the first innings backfired, former wicket-keeper batter Dinesh Karthik raised some tough questions over the calls taken by the team management, especially the head coach Gambhir.
While Karthik refused to defend Kohli over his disastrous performance in the first innings, he also suggested that coach Gambhir should’ve promoted either KL Rahul or Sarfaraz Khan the No. 3 spot.
“I am not protecting Virat Kohli. He has the temperament and technique of some of the greatest batters that have ever played. If I make a change, it is because I believe that player will do well there, not because I want to protect Virat Kohli. He walks in at no. 3 in every ODI, he opens in T20, now you can say the ball is different, it’s not moving as much, 100 percent, in Test cricket where is the best suited place for Virat Kohli, no. 4,” he said on Cricbuzz.
Karthik went on to laud Kohli for taking the onus and putting himself in the line of fire at the No. 3 spot, a position he bats at in ODIs. Though the move didn’t work out well for the talismanic run-scorer, Karthik feels Gambhir also deserves a bulk of the blame for team’s disastrous show on Thursday.
“Commendable on Virat Kohli also, he could have easily said, ‘no, let me bat at four, because you can put KL Rahul or Sarfaraz Khan at three.’ Coach would have said, ‘fine, I will manage that conversation.’ The fact that he said, ‘no, I am happy to go at three,’ tells you the mindset. Results are one thing, obviously it hasn’t gone his way today, but just the fact that India is at a place where people are willing to adapt and at the same time give respect to what the coach thinks, I won’t say it is the right decision. I still feel personally KL should have batted at three, that’s what I feel, that’s different. But I definitely don’t follow Gambhir’s thinking of let’s have the same batting order, so that there’s consistency in their thought process and eventually the results will come out,” he added.