“DHONI WAS BREATHING DOWN MY NECK “- DINESH KARTHIK

Dinesh Karthik is one of the most loved cricketers going around for his kind and humble nature. He has really done it all for India, playing as a wicketkeeper batsman, playing as a specialist batsman, Opening the innings, batting in the middle order, finishing the innings, he is someone who has done everything that’s asked of him.

He has always been identified as a great talent with a lot of potential right the time when he made it to the Under-19 team when he was 15. He also made it to the 2004 Under-19 world cup where one of his memorable performances came against SriLanka where he scored 70 from 39 balls to take India into the semifinals. Since then his career was on a constant rise making this India debut both in the Test and One day formats in 2004. However, his inconsistent form saw him get replaced by MS Dhoni who was going well in the one-day format. He did have opportunities as a specialist batsman later where he did put up good performances in India’s tour of England in 2007 but he didn’t manage to put up consistent performances for India and was dropped. 

The presense of MS Dhoni definitely had a role to play in him getting limited opportunities and when he recently when he made a comeback to the test team, said “To be part of the Test team is something I’ve always dreamt of. I guess I didn’t perform well enough before. Dhoni was breathing down my neck. He has gone on to become probably one of the greatest Test captains India has produced. So, it’s not that I lost my place to some normal cricketer”.

In the IPL however, he has always been a sort after player and had a very good season with the Mumbai Indians in 2013 scoring 510 runs.  He has played for various teams and has now in the Kolkata Knight Riders team as captain since 2018 where he had a fantastic season with the bat scoring 498 runs and as captain. He also proved himself as one of the best finishers in the IPL. This led to him making a strong comeback for the Indian team putting up several good performances, including the Nidahas trophy final which was a memorable one.

Now there is a bit of cloud around the world cup squad selection between him and Rishabh Pant as the backup wicketkeeper. Dinesh Karthik will be looking this year’s IPL to put up song strong performances and make a strong case for his selection. His 50 from 36 balls against the Delhi Capitals was an important knock in the circumstances and will be hoping to put up many more such performances.