Dinesh Karthik: The Re-Inventor

Dinesh Karthik was one of the plethora of wicketkeepers tried out by India in the Ganguly era of Indian cricket before the arrival of Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Nevertheless, having been in and out of the Indian team and in the limited opportunities he’s had, he has performed admirably behind the stumps as well as with the bat. Having risen through the ranks in age-group cricket, Karthik started to make the selectors’ shortlist after a string of centuries in the 2002/03 season for the Tamil Nadu Under-19 side.

The runs faded away towards the end of the season, but the selectors decided to give him the benefit of the doubt and he was summoned into the national side after Parthiv Patel was axed due to his unreliable glovework. Dinesh Karthik immediately caught the public eye when he debuted for India in ODIs as a 19-year-old in late 2004. The blurry image of an airborne Karthik flying horizontally to stump Michael Vaughan at Lord’s has been etched into the mental timelines of contemporary Indian cricket aficionados ever since.

Dinesh Karthik has played a wonderful finishing touch for India 🇮🇳 against Bangladesh.

He was handed a Test debut on a minefield of a track in Mumbai in late 2004 against Australia. However, a string of low scores made way for other keeper-batsmen in the fringes. After the emergence of Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Dinesh Karthik has made comebacks into the side as a pure batsman but failed to topple over Dhoni for the wicketkeeping position. The highest point in his career arrived when Karthik, replaced Sehwag in the 2007 tour of England as an opener.

Showing a stoic, airtight technique in unfavorable conditions, he ended the Test series as India’s highest run-getter, ahead of some big names like Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly, and Sachin Tendulkar, playing a significant role in handing India an elusive away series win. Dinesh Karthik’s keeping, though, needed a lot of work; it was a flaw that had led to his axing from the Tamil Nadu side as well. However, a specialized training camp in the off-season under former Indian keeper Kiran More helped him refine his technique and as a result, he came back a more technically accomplished and confident wicketkeeper.

He made a comeback to the side in 2006 after Dhoni was rested, and later earned a spot as a pure batsman following the poor batting form of some of the other Indian players. However, he had another dip in form and Virender Sehwag’s return to form meant Karthik was out of the playing XI again. With an established opening combination and Dhoni already set in the team, Dinesh Karthik’s chances were scarce. However, he made a mess of the opportunities he did get with an abominable display of wicketkeeping in the Sri Lanka Tests in 2008, as he lost his place to Parthiv Patel for the final Test of the series.

He did reasonably well in India’s unbeaten Champions Trophy campaign in 2013, starting off with two centuries in the warm-up matches and continuing his good run in the limited opportunities he got during the tournament. It was all too good to last, though, as Karthik went through another familiar dip in form and lost his place in the side. He found some touch early in 2014 and when MS Dhoni pulled out of the 2014 Asia Cup, Dinesh Karthik got the nod and he played in the middle order.

With Saha turning out to be nearly flawless behind the stumps and gritty with the willow, Dinesh Karthik’s might have missed the bus with the whites, but his batting ability has kept him at the brink of the Indian ODI side. His performance at the domestic level remains consistent and he continues to be the quintessential replacement player for India; one who hasn’t quite been able to churn out enough performances consistently to carve out his own identity at the highest level, but has been a useful stand-in when picked.

IPL through the years: Dinesh Karthik’s struggle to break from the fringes did not have any bearing on his IPL career as he was picked for the inaugural edition of the IPL by Delhi Daredevils. In this IPL, he played brilliantly for RCB making them alive in the race to qualify for the Play-Offs. He has played for various franchises in his career like Delhi Daredevils, Kings X1 Punjab, Mumbai Indians, Gujarat Lions, RCB and was the captain of KKR, but left captaincy in mid-way in IPL 2021. He showed positive attitude and was the finisher for the team.

Dinesh Karthik has led KKR but left in the middle of the season 🏏

Adding his unimpeachable wicket-keeping skills to the batting exploits, he is making a compulsive case for an India recall. He has been ageing with maturity. He is batting quite innovatively; creativity in the placements and selection of his shots cannot be escaped. His keeping has been as good as it ever was,” says MSK Prasad, himself a wicketkeeper-batsman of his time and a former chief selector. “I see he is in a very good mental space.”

In World Cups :- Dinesh Karthik is one of the very unlucky player, he was not been given many matches to prove his caliber in the International Circuit. Karthik believes that he was dumped from all formats due to his poor outing in the 2019 World Cup. The Tamil Nadu cricketer had a forgettable outing in the 2019 World Cup and, as a result, he was dropped from both the ODI and T20I squads post the quadrennial event. Dinesh Karthik further reckoned that Team India needs a specialist middle-order batter in white-ball cricket as most of the players that they have tried to integrate into the middle-order are specialist top-order batters.

It all happened in a dose ✅, batting promotion and getting out 💥