3 Players for whom the Afghanistan Test is important

#2 Dinesh Karthik

Dinesh Karthik has a good record in Tests in England

Dinesh Karthik has been in exceptional form in all forms of the game for the past couple of seasons. He made a comeback to the national side for the limited-over formats on the back of some stupendous performances in the domestic circuit.

Although the opportunities in the Indian side have been limited, Karthik has been pretty effective averaging 61.00 in ODIs and a whopping 84.50 in T20Is (excluding the match for ICC World XI against Windies).

Coming in to bat with 34 runs required in 12 balls, he played a blazing knock of 29 not out in just eight deliveries and won India the final of the Nidahas Trophy against Bangladesh.

Captaining the Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL, DK continued his good form scoring 498 runs at an average of 49.80. In the longer format, he amassed 291 runs in the three matches of the Duleep Trophy which included a couple of centuries.

In the 2016-17 Ranji Trophy season, he scored 704 runs at an average of 54.15, but, could play just a single match in the previous season due to him being a part of the Indian team.

With Wriddhiman Saha injured, the Tamil Nadu wicket-keeper was called in as a replacement for the Afghanistan Test ahead of Parthiv Patel, who has been a reserve wicket-keeper for the past couple of years.

Considering his good technique and a great record in England (263 runs at an average of 43.83), Karthik is a better option to make it to the squad as a reserve batsman and wicket-keeper and a good performance against Afghanistan will enable him to stake a claim to be considered as a first choice wicket-keeper.