Senior wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik will miss India’s next Super 12 match of the T20 World Cup 2022 against Bangladesh as he is suffering from back pain which forced him to leave the ground on Sunday, October 23. Rishabh Pant walked in to keep wickets for the last five overs of South Africa’s innings.
The primary reason for Karthik’s injury could be the cold weather conditions in Australia, which can cause such niggles. It usually takes three to five days to recover from a back spasm, if only minor issues.
“Karthik felt pain in his lower back. We haven’t heard about the severity of his back spasm. The medical team is working to get him fit as heat treatment and massaging helps reduce the discomfort, quickly. So don’t rule him out [of the tournament],” a senior BCCI official privy to the development told PTI.
Karthik has so far failed to perform with the bat, scoring just one run against Pakistan and six off 15 balls against South Africa. Behind the wickets, he has missed two stumpings and a catch in three games.
According to reports, Pant is set to replace Karthik in India’s playing XI for the next two games. The 25-year-old last played a T20I against South Africa on October 4 in Indore, where he opened the innings along with captain Rohit Sharma and scored 27 runs off 14 balls.
Before the start of the ongoing T20 World Cup, Pant also participated in the two practice matches against Western Australia but got out for identical scores of nine runs each.
India will lock horns with Bangladesh at the Adelaide Oval on Wednesday (November 30). Shakib Al Hasan and Co. are coming into the game after successive wins over the Netherlands and Zimbabwe.
India’s predicted XI against Bangladesh:
KL Rahul, Rohit Sharma (c), Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant, Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Arshdeep Singh, Mohammad Shami.