Living in the shadow of a legend – A tale of three wicket-keepers

It is said that no vegetation is possible in the umbrage of an enormous tree, for it casts a shadow so huge and is ingrained so deep that any bush or shrub trying to grow underneath is devoid of any light and sapped of all nutrients. It’s no different when it comes to budding sportsmen trying to make it to their national side. Since times immemorial, there have always been cases in sport where some extremely talented players were denied opportunities, simply because of being contemporaries to some legends of the game. Going back in history, one can find scores of cricketers that, for their entire careers, remained in the shadows of other legends; but, probably none more unfortunate than the Indian bench-warming wicket-keeper duo Parthiv Patel and Dinesh Karthik.

In his shadows they wait: Dinesh Karthik observing MS Dhoni during a practice session in the recent Pakistan ODI series where an injury scare meant that Dhoni might miss the third ODI

In cricket, unlike the rest of the players in the outfit, the wicket-keeper enjoys a unique privilege. Unless ruled out due to injury or omitted due to exceptionally bad performances on a consistent basis, once settled-in, a wicket-keeper remains pretty much unchanged, even if all the squad around him is shaken up and shifted around. A stable wicket-keeper has always been a hallmark of most of the successful sides in the recent decades. But this would also conversely mean that once a wicket-keeper is settled-in, any more cricketers with the same forte from that generation would, in all probability, have to warm benches, as reserves, for the rest of their careers. It is especially true if the man you are trying to replace is Mahendra Singh Dhoni who has grown into an indispensable cog, absolutely essential for the functioning of the machine that is the Indian cricket team.

Interestingly, Parthiv and Karthik, both of whom are younger than Dhoni, are in a way senior to him, having debuted for the Indian national team earlier than Dhoni. At a time when the Indian cricket team was going through a transition phase, desperately trying to fill in the void left behind after Nayan Mongia’s premature retirement, India saw the rise of two promising young cricketers contending for that spot. Parthiv and Karthik had a similar rise to the point where they were presented with their Indian cap – lots of early promise; brilliant and aggressive run in the U-19 World Cup; called in to replace yet another candidate that failed to replace Mongia. In fact, the only difference between them was that Parthiv managed all this, a couple of years earlier than Karthik and that failed candidate in Karthik’s case was Parthiv.

Although both these young wicket-keepers had a patchy start, given their age and their potential, everybody was certain that they would up their game. So, despite the unimpressive performances early in their international career, everybody was confident that it would be one of these two names that would have a tag reading (WK) in the squad for the coming 10-12 years. And then, seemingly out of nowhere, Dhoni blasted his way into the Indian cricket team. Prior to his back-to-back centuries against Pakistan A, in Kenya, which got him on the selectors’ radar, he was virtually a nobody. After a patchy first series in Bangladesh, he did not take long to make his mark in the second, against Pakistan at home. He became the first Indian wicket-keeper to score a century, in a magnificent 123-ball 148, that made him an instant hit with the Indian fans.

And from that moment on, Dhoni’s career grew by leaps and bounds. By the turn of the year, he was “THE keeper” for India in both the formats of the game; and by the end of the next, he was leading the side in the shortest format of the game. Dhoni’s rise was so meteoric that both the keepers that were, a couple of years ago, destined to be Mongia’s successors were very quickly included in the long list of failures that preceded Dhoni. Not long after, Dhoni took up the helm of the Indian cricket team in all three formats, elevating his already “ indispensable” status to “irreplaceable”. But, Parthiv and Karthik continued to perfect their craft, in the shadows, making sure that they are the ones that are thought of as the first alternatives, should Dhoni get injured or should he have a big-time slump in the form. But as they found out over the next few years, Dhoni turned out to be not only one of the most prolific run scorers down the order and one of the most successful captains, but also one of the fittest cricketers of all time, being ruled out for a game due to injury on only two occasions in his entire career.

Karthik, realizing that if he wants to play for team India it would have to be alongside Dhoni and not in his stead, started to focus on ironing out the kinks in his batting technique. After Karthik’s consistent domestic success with the bat, selectors called up Karthik as a specialist batsman. But in a power-packed Indian batting line-up that included the likes of Sehwag, Gambhir, Dravid, Sachin and Ganguly, Karthik’s occasional heroics quickly waned from the public eye, with only his lean patches standing out. And when the veterans made way for the younger generation of Indian batsmen, Karthik failed to find his place even amongst them. Parthiv being a wicket-keeper cum opening batsman had greater difficulty trying to find a place in the national side, as he needed to outperform one of the all-time best opening pair, to merit an invitation to the side as a professional batsman. Nevertheless, he continued to grow, maturing both as a batsman and as a keeper.

Both Karthik and Parthiv have been around for about a decade at the international level, but have failed to make a huge impact.

Seeing the continued domestic excellence and the recent IPL heroics of these two keepers that have thus far been cloaked in the shadow of an enormous presence in the Indian team that is Dhoni, it is natural that one should ponder – “How different would the situation have been if these two were born in an era different from MSD”. However, it’s not completely hopeless for these two “veteran saplings” to make it big in the national side. Both Karthik and Parthiv are still relatively young, at 27 and 28, thanks to their early start. They are the only ones still left of the long line of Dhoni’s predecessors that unsuccessfully tried to fill in Mongia’s shoes. Both of them have shown exemplary perseverance and resilience to have come this far. Who knows, if they continue to persevere and manage to grow out of the umbrage, they might find sunlight and flourish waiting for them outside!