Rishabh Pant was benched from India's lineup against Pakistan for the Asia Cup 2022 clash earlier on Sunday, August 28, and the decision left fans surprised. Dinesh Karthik started in the place of the 24-year-old, and the change made little difference as the Men in Blue beat their arch-rivals by 5 wickets.
Determined to win his place back in the side, the southpaw was seen sweating it out in the nets ahead of India's clash versus Hong Kong on Wednesday. In fact, during the net session, Pant brought out MS Dhoni's beloved 'helicopter shot' as well, the video of which is breaking the internet.
This wasn't even the first instance when Pant had aced the signature shot of Dhoni, as he has in many previous matches, including that in IPL, played the 'helicopter shot' multiple times.
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The upcoming match against Hong Kong will be India's first meeting with their opponents in the shortest format. Rohit Sharma will be expected to go more or less with the same lineup, however, it remains to be seen whether he decides to go with Pant this time around.
In the previous match, Pant's exclusion from the side left everyone, including the fans and many experts in surprise, given he's seen as India's future pillar.
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Former Indian selector Saba Karim, like many others, was left baffled by Rohit's choice to go with Karthik, instead of Pant.
Speaking on Sports18's show 'Sports Over The Top', Karim stated, "I was surprised because I do stick to my earlier stand of having Pant in the side in place of Dinesh Karthik because I always felt that we need to look ahead and even now I do believe that Rishabh Pant can add far more value with due respect to Dinesh Karthik than Dinesh Karthik. But there can be possible explanations over there about which one can chat."
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