Dinesh Karthik played against England in an ODI at Lord’s in September 2004 to make his debut on the international stage. The 37-year-old has so far represented India in 170 international games (across all three formats).
He has taken over 100 international catches, scored over 3000 runs in international competitions, kept wickets, played match-winning innings, and performed stumpings.
But before India’s Asia Cup Super 4 encounter against Afghanistan on Thursday, he had never tried his hand at bowling in an international competition. Karthik now has bowling statistics associated with his name for the first time in his 18-year stint with India.
During the Asia Cup 2022 opener against Afghanistan on Thursday, Karthik bowled the first over of his international career after receiving the white leather from acting captain KL Rahul.
Just to remind you, prior to this match, India had already been eliminated from the Asia Cup.
IND vs AFG Highlights
Virat Kohli scored a brazen and eagerly anticipated century (122* off 61 balls), which helped India build a massive 212 for 2 in 20 overs. The Indian bowlers then put the Afghans on the defensive at 21/6 as early as the seventh over. The best Indian bowler, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, produced astounding figures of 5/4 in his allotted 4 overs.
Given that the 7th wicket fell to all-rounder Rashid Khan with only 54 runs on the board, it was rather unexpected to see the Afghan innings last until the 20th over with the world number 10 ranked team, who have made tremendous strides in the shortest format, not getting bowled out. With an unbeatable 59-ball 64, Ibrahim Zadran stood out among the rubble. He batted third and remained until the very last over, scoring 50 and helping his team reach 100.
How many runs did Dinesh Karthik gave in his first over?
Dinesh Karthik bowled the last over, the 20th of Afghanistan’s innings, during which they had to score an impossibly high 120 runs off just six balls. KL Rahul tossed the ball to DK when everyone was anticipating Arshdeep Singh to bowl that over.
After collecting two runs off the opening ball, Afghan batsman Ibrahim Zadran hit the 27-year-old Karthik for back-to-back sixes. In the final over of the game, Karthik gave up 18 runs, which was a first in his Indian career. India ultimately defeated Afghanistan by an enormous score of 101 runs, which ranks as their second-highest margin of victory in this format.
