"It's nothing outstanding or fancy" - Dinesh Karthik's blunt remark on India star amid NZ vs IND 2026 3rd T20I

Former Indian wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik undermined veteran spinner Axar Patel's bowling performance in the third T20I against New Zealand in Wellington. The left-arm spinner conceded only 36 runs off his four overs and dismissed the dangerous Glenn Phillips for 17 off 14 balls.

Axar's exploits helped India restrict New Zealand to 198/3 in 20 overs. While praising the all-rounder duo of Axar and Nitish Kumar Reddy, Karthik still felt the former bowled at the more advantageous times in the innings.

Reacting to Axar Patel's bowling performance, Karthik said on Cricbuzz (10:00):

"Axar Patel has been as good as he has ever been in this series. But Axar giving 36 in four overs is decent and not great because he didn't bowl an over in the powerplay. Solely bowling in the middle overs, his figures are par. It's nothing outstanding or fancy. It's a credible effort, though, as he bowled to set batters.

He added:

"Nitish giving you four overs is gold. He's able to hold his own ground as a bowler, which is good news for India."

Despite still being regarded as a batting all-rounder, Nitish bowled four impressive overs, conceding only 38 runs for a wicket.

"He frontloads his bowlers and hopes to pick wickets" - Dinesh Karthik on Shreyas Iyer's captaincy

Dinesh Karthik believes Shreyas Iyer's style of front-loading the specialist bowlers forced Nitish Kumar Reddy to bowl the penultimate over of the New Zealand innings in the third T20I. After giving away only 23 runs off his first three overs, the youngster conceded 15 off the 19th over.

"Nitish bowling the 19th over is more Shreyas Iyer's style of captaincy. He frontloads his bowlers and hopes to pick wickets. Then, to the less accomplished batters, he doesn't mind bowling the lesser bowlers. It's a good strategy, and it has worked," said Karthik (via the aforementioned source).

He added:

"Nitish has shown the ability to bowl the yorker. If he tries five, he lands three to four. But because he's slightly slow, when he doesn't land it, it goes for a boundary. It has to be viewed with the right lens. If you judge him by how you would judge Bhuvneshwar Kumar or Arshdeep, then it's unfair to Nitish Kumar Reddy."

Nitish's impressive showing meant India used only five bowlers in their entire innings. The visitors then completed the job emphatically, chasing down 199 in the 14th over with six wickets in hand.

Looking for fast live cricket scores? Download CricRocket and get fast score updates, top-notch commentary in-depth match stats & much more! 🚀☄️