India wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik came out in support of Tamil Nadu captain Sai Kishore after the coach Sulakshan Kulkarni blamed the skipper’s decision to bat first behind the team’s defeat in the Ranji Trophy semi-final match against Mumbai.
Taking to X, Karthik not only came down heavily on Kulkarni but also reminded him that it was under Kishore’s captaincy that Tamil Nadu reached the semis of the Ranji Trophy after a gap of seven years.
“This is soo WRONG. This is so disappointing from the coach ..instead of backing the captain who has brought the team to the semis after 7 yrs and thinking it’s a start for good things to happen, the coach has absolutely thrown his captain and team under the bus,” Karthik wrote on X.
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After an innings and 70 runs defeat against Mumbai, Kulkarni did not take much time to criticise his captain’s decision to bat first after winning the toss. According to him, the conditions were best suited for the seam bowling and the caption should have opted to bowl first.
“I always speak straightforward – we lost the match at 9 o’clock on day one. The moment I saw the wicket I exactly knew what we were going to get. Everything was set, we won the toss, as a coach, as a Mumbaikar, I know the conditions well. We should have bowled but the captain had some different instinct,” Kulkarni said.
“When I saw that they had played on a different pitch in the quarter-final and what wicket they gave, I realised that this is a seaming-friendly wicket and it was going to be a very tough match, and we would have to play really well to win this game.
“Ultimately he [Sai Kishore] is the boss. I can give my feedback and inputs (on) the kind of wickets and Mumbai’s mindset,” he added.