The Defending Champions of the ICC Champions Trophy 2017 have work to do after the conclusion of warm-up games as they have to select the playing XI for India vs Pakistan clash on June 4. As far as warm-up games performances are concerned, we might see a few surprises in the team. Skipper Virat Kohli will face a dilemma ahead of their first ICC Champions Trophy 2017 game where he would have to choose between out-of-form Ajinkya Rahane and in-form Dinesh Karthik. The wicketkeeper-batsman who was called up as replacement of injured Manish Pandey scored a blistering knock of 94 from 77 balls against Bangladesh in the warm-up game on May 30.
After an easy win over Bangladesh by 240 runs, the skipper dropped the hint over selection as he said, “We back Hardik (Pandya) and Kedar (Jadhav) to do the job for us down the order. Dinesh is an outstanding player, we just wanted to give him a longer run. We have ticked all the boxes in these games.” ALSO READ: Watch: MS Dhoni makes a mess of a simple catch and Virat Kohli could not stop laughing!
Karthik got out for a duck in the first warm-up game against New Zealand but came back strongly against Bangladesh. Whereas Rahane had a tough Indian Premier League (IPL) 2017 season filled with inconsistency. Whereas in warm-up games he could only score 7 and 11 against New Zealand and Bangladesh respectively.
Kohli seemed happy with the team’s performance as well in the warm-up games, he added, “Both games we got what we wanted. Batsmen got runs, bowlers were outstanding as well. When the cloud cover comes in, it’s difficult for the batsmen.” ALSO READ: Virat Kohli, the flag-bearer for India in ICC ODI Rankings ahead of ICC Champions Trophy 2017
With Pandya and Jadeja in good form both with ball and bat, we might see Kohli promoting himself up the order on No.3 and giving Karthik a chance in the middle order.
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