After being picked up by Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) at the mega auction in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022, wicketkeeper-batter Dinesh Karthik already had a big goal in mind, to make a return to the Indian team.
And surely, the batsman's hard work proved vital as the All-India Senior Selection Committee picked an 18-member squad for the upcoming five-match Paytm T20I home series against South Africa, with him being part of it.
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The veteran cricket had last played for India in the 2019 World Cup semi-final. The right-handed batter had accumulated 287 runs with an average of 57.40 also playing some match-winning innings.
The 36-year-old, since making his international debut in 2004, has been in and out of the Indian team. He has played in the shadows of legendary MS Dhoni as the second wicketkeeper, but after the emergence of Rishabh Pant, things did not go in his favour.
However, now making a comeback, Karthik took to Twitter and wrote, "If you believe yourself, everything will fall into place! Thank you for all the support and belief…the hard work continues…".
Karthik has been picked up as one and the three wicketkeeping options alongside Rishabh Pant and Ishan Kishan.
The RCB batter is definitely on the radar to make it to the T20 World Cup 2022 in Australia later this year.
India's squad: KL Rahul (C), Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ishan Kishan, Deepak Hooda, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant (wk), Dinesh Karthik (wk), Hardik Pandya, Venkatesh Iyer, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, Ravi Bishnoi, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Harshal Patel, Avesh Khan, Arshdeep Singh, Umran Malik.
