The rise of Dinesh Karthik

When you talk of someone having lived in the shadow of the other person throughout his career, people tend to generally think of Rahul Dravid, who despite performing so well for India with the bat had always been rated next to the genius of Sachin Tendulkar. But the fact of the matter is – Rahul was, at least, able to continuously play for India and develop his own image. And getting sidelined in the era of Tendulkar was no shame either as the little master is a sort of player who can appear only once in a millennium.

But when you track down the career of another cricketer of the current era, the former Karnataka batsman must consider himself very fortunate. Despite being in the shadows of Sachin for the most part of his career which spanned over 16 years, he was given his own recognition as the second best batsman in the team. However, things were not the same with a man from Tamil Nadu who made his debut for the Indian team late in 2004 as a wicket keeper batsman, only to vacate the place in the following year to the current Indian captain M.S.Dhoni.

Dinesh Karthik was first selected for the Indian team nine years ago, as a wicket keeper. But as soon as Dhoni made his way into the team as a destructive wicket keeper batsman in 2005, the Tamil Nadu player saw himself being relieved of his gloves. Though he could still find himself a position in the team as a top order batsman (mainly in the opening slot), especially in test matches, he hardly received any chance to keep wickets for his side thereafter. So, featuring in the side regularly became all the more impossible for him as he was left to fight for a place in the side primarily as a batsman. And when the Jharkhand wicket keeper was also appointed the skipper of the side, he grabbed the opportunity with both the hands, leaving Karthik to fight hard for his survival.

Dinesh was never a wicket keeper to start with. His aspiration was to become a top order batsman since his childhood. But in order to survive in this competitive world, he decided to increase his chances of being selected for the national side by donning the keeping gloves. Ideally with the sort of batting he had, he should have been a regular member of the Indian team, given the fact that he used to keep wickets too. MSD’s success with the bat and his elevation as the captain of the team made Dinesh  fight for his existence in the side. The Indian skipper was not in a position to play him primarily as a wicket keeper either. As a result, the Tamil Nadu player was forced to show his batting credentials consistently to be in the team. Sadly, he failed to make that happen and that’s why was unable to find a place in the national team regularly. In the 23 test matches he has played, he has scored a lone test century, which came against Bangladesh. One notable accomplishment of his career was the success that he enjoyed playing as an opener in a test series during India’s tour of England in the year 2007. He finished as the top run getter in that series too. Since then, he could not produce a significant contribution to the side and, therefore,  was overlooked by the selection committee. The situation was no different for him in case of ODIs too.