Dinesh Karthi - India - sportstiger

Picture Credit: Twitter

Indian team continued their incredible run in the Caribbean as they registered a massive 68-run win in the first T20I. The Indian team had a great start with Rohit Sharma and Suryakumar Yadav scoring 44 in just four overs. But here India’s struggles started as their middle order failed to score any consistent runs. Here stepped in Dinesh Karthik who just played a thunderous 41 in 9 balls to take the score to 190. 

After the match, Karthik won the player of the match award and talked about how he has embraced this finisher role for the team. He talked about how he has received a lot of support from the coach and the captain as the role can lead to inconsistent results. 

“I have been enjoying it a lot,” Karthik said during the post-match presentation. “It is a very interesting role. It is not something that you can be very consistent with but on some days, you can make an impact on the team. You need the backing of the captain and coach and I have got that in abundance”, he added.

He also talked about how "assessing the wicket is important", which allows him to accelerate quickly on tough pitches like one used for the match. He said, “On any given day, the last three-four overs that you bat, you need to be aware of a lot of things such as the shape of the ball, the softness of the ball, the wicket, and then you need to decide. These are few things and that comes with a little bit of practice.”

Indian captain Rohit Sharma also addressed the difficulty of the wicket and talked about how the batters were finding it tough to score runs. He said, “We knew it's gonna be slightly tough, the shot-making wasn't easy at the start. The guys who are set need to carry on for longer and the way we finished off the first innings was a great effort. When we finished the first 10 overs, we didn't think we could get to 190. It was a great effort from the boys and a great finish.”