The rise of Dinesh Karthik

Over the years, India had been producing wicket keepers of immense potential. Prominent among them were Kiran More, Chandrakant Pandit, Sadanand Vishwanath, Saba Karim, Nayan Mongia, and not to mention the evergreen Syed Kirmani. If you look at the careers of all those keepers, barring perhaps Mongia and Kirmani to an extent, not everyone was able to cement their position in the team for very long. None of the keepers was persisted with regularly primarily due to the inability of anyone of them to add value to the team. Since Dhoni is not only smarter than Karthik behind the wickets, but also has been producing magical innings at the lower middle order, he still remains in the team for close to eight years now. As a result, the Mumbai Indians batsman has been forced to live in the shadows of the current Indian captain all these years.

At the start of the champions trophy last week, MSD made it clear that Dinesh had earned his place in the playing XI. Getting selected to play for your country is one thing, but to be able to find a place in the playing XI requires years of dedication and hard work. So, it was really a commendable fight back by him to find a place for himself in the team as a regular batsman. It was not just his performance in the IPLs and domestic season, which helped him to get into the national team. While the performances in IPL, where you get the opportunity to play against world class bowlers, and your form in the domestic season are important to gain entry into the national side, Karthik’s selection had more to do with the change in his batting approach.

He is much improved a batsman now. All those days, when he was out of the national side, he has done well to better his technique, especially his back foot play. Though he has been an aggressive player right from the start, he was unable to match the muscle power of Dhoni who can clear the boundaries at will. Nowadays, Karthik, as we have seen him in his recent stints in IPL, has developed many cheeky shots in his arsenal and has learnt to play them safe too. Furthermore, he is now playing the horizontal bat shots far better than a year ago. The fact that India has the “Safari Series” coming up later this year may just get fetch him that nod to be in the touring party.

His performances in the warm up matches in England prior to the start of champions trophy where he scored centuries against Srilanka and Australia indicate he is oozing with confidence, and he has taken his batting very seriously. With batsmen like Sehwag, Gambhir and Yuvraj Singh getting dropped from the national side, this is the perfect time for the 28 year old from Tamil Nadu to make a name for himself, performing consistently in the international arena. Let us hope this young batsman exploits the current scenario and buys a permanent place in the Indian team.