XtraTime Web Desk: India cricketer Dinesh Karthik is at a critical juncture in his 16 years long international cricket career. With the likes of KL Rahul and Rishabh Pant doing well in the shorter format, Karthik’s chances of making yet another comeback in the Indian dressing room looks bleak. It is even more difficult for the 34 year old Karthik in the longer format as Wriddhiman Saha has done nothing wrong with his glove works behind the stumps and also Pant being given an opportunity on overseas tours in recent times more because of his ability to score.
Despite being around in 3 World Cups (2007, 2011 and 2015) and 3 Champions Trophy (2009, 2013 and 2017) the Tamil Nadu cricketer has not been able to win the confidence of the selectors and team management. One primary reason was his lack of consistency and more importantly to remain in the shadows of MS Dhoni. With the former India captain choosing a sheet-anchor approach over the last few years, India needed a pinch-hitter who could start hitting from ball 1 and Karthik fitted into the scheme of things. But once again the rise of Hardik Pandya minimized his chances purely as a pinch hitter in the shorter format too. He certainly had opportunities to prove his critics wrong during the 2019 World Cup semi final against New Zealand, when he was promoted ahead of Dhoni. But he failed to capitalize.
Karthik made his international debut long back in 2004 against England. Although he missed an easy caught behind opportunity of Michael Vaughan but his flying effort to stump the former England captain is still etched in the memories of fans. But Indian cricket was destined to witness something extraordinary as MS Dhoni arrived in the scene. The Jharkhand wicketkeeper batsman’s rapid rise meant Karthik’s career was pushed back.
The biggest moment of Dinesh Karthik arrived on March 18, 2018 during the Nidahas Trophy final against Bangladesh at Colombo. It was an opportunity to resurrect his international career. With India requiring 34 runs off 12 deliveries to win, Karthik blasted his way to 29 runs off only 8 balls including a last ball six to script a miraculous win for the Men in Blue.
So far in his international career Karthik has scored 1025 runs in 26 tests at an average of 25. In 94 ODIs he has notched up 1752 runs at 30.21 while in 32 T20Is he managed to score only 399 runs. Dinesh Karthik’s career has been full of ups and downs but the will to carry on is something which makes him special, better than others.