Dinesh Karthik on Sunday defended the wrist-spin pair of Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal, who were not only expensive but could manage only one wicket between them against New Zealand in the first ODI in Mumbai.
Kuldeep claimed 1 for 64 off his 10 overs while Chahal was wicketless, giving away 51 runs in his 10 overs as the visitors sauntered to a win by six wickets with an over to spare, chasing 281 at the Wankhede Stadium on Sunday.
“I think the team management has backed them really a lot and they believe in themselves. They are too young, they have produced some fantastic spells in the last series and I am sure their confidence is sky-high. One game here and there does not make you a bad bowler and that is something you learn,” Karthik told reporters after India’s defeat.
“I think these are the kind of games that make you mentally tougher as a bowler. That is what they would like to look at it, this is a great learning curve for them and that is the whole point of playing bilateral (series). You play bilateral for two reasons – one to win the bilateral and the other one is to prepare for the bigger tournaments,” he explained.
“These are the kind of games that are going to help them stand up to pressure, learn how to handle pressure when the wicket is probably not helping them so much. (If) everything comes too easy then the sport is too easily played, these are the kind of games that will make them go think about what they need to do when next time they are pitted against this kind of wicket and an opposition.
“They are going to learn and they are very young, they have bowled really well till now so I do not see them backing out at all, I see them coming harder every single game,” he added.
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Karthik said he was disappointed to have lost his wicket at a crucial time.
Making a comeback into the ODI side, Karthik scored 37 and added 73 with Virat Kohli, but said the effort was not enough.
“There are two ways to look at it, it is a decent start. Again having said that a player like me should try and bat a little longer. That is something I am disappointed with. I could have batted a little more… we could have ended up getting 15-20 more runs maybe. I got out on a critical time in the game so I am pretty disappointed with that aspect. It was a decent start, good to have that partnership with Virat,” he said.
Dinesh Karthik praised New Zealand batsmen Ross Taylor (95) and Tom Latham (103 not out) for their record partnership that gave New Zealand a 1-0 lead in the series.
“Credit to Tom Latham and Ross Taylor, they batted really well. They made use of the conditions and they played some good shots, used the sweep to a good effect and (had) a fantastic partnership,” the right-handed Indian batsman said.
‘Wicket got better in second innings’
Karthik was of the opinion that the wicket at Wankhede Stadium got easier to bat on in the second innings.
“Look, initially I think the wicket was very sticky. It was not easy to drive, a lot of balls were going uppish in the air. It was very hard to drive, it was not coming on to the bat really well. It was two different wickets to be very honest, it was not that easy to score runs; you could see the ball going to the left and right to mid off and the cover in the air so we were not able to time the ball as well. It got much better to bat in the second innings, credit to them they made use of it,” he said.
When we were batting we thought at one stage 250 is probably a great score (keeping in mind) the wicket it was very sticky and turning a bit. We batted really well towards the end, Virat played some fantastic shots and Bhuvi (Bhuvneshwar Kumar) as well, we ended up getting 280 which we thought was a very, very good score to be very honest,” he added.
He said the ball was coming on nicely on the bat in the second innings, and the dew factor also played its part.
“The way the ball was coming on to the bat in the second innings, it was not really helping us and with dew coming in towards the end it just made it that much more harder with wrist spinners. All in all, credit to them they played better today,” he said.
With the No 4 slot in the Indian ODI side up for grabs, Karthik said he does not want to think about having a choice on where he wants to bat. “At this point of time I do not want to say that I am comfortable with No 4 or 5 , from where I come whatever opportunity is given to me by the coach and the captain I am going to be honest and say ‘yes I am going to play no matter where it is’,” Karthik said.