Dinesh Karthik keen to play under Gary Kirsten in IPL

Dinesh Karthik

Dinesh Karthik, the second most expensive player in the IPL auction, said that he is keen to play under Delhi Daredevils (DD) coach Gary Kirsten, after being bought for Rs 12.5 crores by the franchise.

“Everybody knows him as a wonderful human being and his track record has been phenomenal. It is going to be wonderful to be working with a person like him and you require a calm head in T20 and he will definitely bring that to the table,” said Karthik.

Karthik speaks about his current IPL team(DD) – “I think it is a very balanced squad. It is one of those squads where you don’t have huge names, but I think we have the potential to win games of cricket. But T20 is such a format. It is not about how strong a team is, but at that given day who plays the best.”

When asked about whether the captaincy should be given to the former England player Kevin Pietersen or he himself, Karthik said that it’s all according to the decision of the coach and team management.

“It is not about whether I am good enough or Kevin Pietersen is good enough. It is about what Gary Kirsten and the entire coaching unit thinks. What they feel is the best suited for the team.

“I think we should leave the option to them and whatever they decide, it will be a good decision because they all have previous experiences as support staff.”

When asked about Mumbai Indians not retaining him for this year’s IPL, he said: “If you are a championship winning team, you always have about 7-8 players who have the chances of being retained. The rules are such that you can retain only five. They took their option and it is totally upto them and I am totally with them on that.”

“Given an opportunity the playing 11 which had played the final would have been retained. Why would they let go a player like Mitchell Johnson . That is part of the IPL, that is part of the player’s auction. I wish them good luck,” he said.

“I am really grateful to Mumbai Indians for giving me an opportunity like that to showcase my potential as a cricketer and it was a wonderful couple of years with Mumbai Indians. I will definitely miss them. There is a new opportunity for me and I will definitely look to do my best,” Karthik added.

Karthik admitted that he was surprised by the price at which Delhi Daredevils bought him in the auction.

“It came as a surprise to me. I am not going to be lying here. I was very surprised. I am very happy with the team. At the end of the day it is not about the money but what you can contribute to the team and that is what I am looking forward to,” he said.

“This has been by far the cleverest auction in many ways. If you see a lot of the domestic Indian players have earned far more than lot of international players and I am not talking about international players who have arrived at the scene, but of good quality.”

“It just goes to show that if you perform in IPL , you will be getting what you deserve irrespective of whether you are an uncapped player or a capped player or domestic player or international player. It is about what you can bring to the table,” he said.

Karthik was not included in the 15 member squad for the upcoming ICC World T20 championship.

“I think it is very wrong to compare the IPL with the current Indian T20 team. Even if you see the Indian T20 team, out of the top seven that are playing, six of them have been retained.

“It just shows that the Indian team has a batting unit that is very strong. There are bound to be players who are going to be missing out and I am one of them. I wish the team good luck and it is all upto the selectors and what they think is the best for Team India at the moment,” concluded Karthik.