"How do you see he’s not going to play?" - Sunil Gavaskar takes cheeky dig at Gautam Gambhir's statement after Dinesh Karthik slams maiden T20I fifty vs SA

Indian cricket legend Sunil Gavaskar has disagreed with what Gautam Gambhir had to say about Dinesh Karthik's future in the Indian team. Gambhir had earlier claimed that there was no point in picking Karthik in the T20 World Cup squad if he wasn't going to get a place in the playing XI at the mega event.

The 72-year-old wasn't impressed with the way Dinesh Karthik was written off even before he got the opportunity to make a comeback. Gavaskar insisted it is only the performance that should be considered and not reputation while selecting players for the national team.

Karthik, meanwhile, responded to his naysayers in style with a 55(27) in the fourth India vs South Africa T20I game of their ongoing five-match series in Rajkot on Friday.

Speaking on Star Sports, here's what Sunil Gavaskar had to say after Dinesh Karthik slammed his maiden T20I fifty:

“I know people are talking about how can you include him in the team when he’s not going to play. How do you see he’s not going to be able to play? He could be the guy you want. You look at the form and not reputations, names and then you pick the guy.”

"You can’t expect him to get 50 regularly" - Sunil Gavaskar on Dinesh Karthik

Sunil Gavaskar believes the impact of Karthik's runs are more important than the amount of runs that he got. The 37-year-old bats at either No. 6 or No. 7 in his new role and might only seldom get enough deliveries to aim for a half-century.

But Gavaskar was highly impressed with the way Karthik turned the innings on its head and feels that he should be on the plane to Australia. On this, he stated:

“He (Karthik) doesn’t get too many opportunities, bats at No. 6 and 7. You can’t expect him to get 50 regularly. He’ll get you a good 40 in 20 deliveries and that’s what he has been doing consistently. He did the exactly the same thing again and that is the reason why he’s very much in contention for a place in the World Cup squad.”