Dinesh Karthik made his Test debut a year before Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Today he is being talked about as a successor to the former India captain. Karthik’s steady wickekeeping or his neat stroke play are not a revelation for those seeing him as the man to take over from MSD in the shorter formats. Karthik’s fortunes swung remarkably on Sunday night when he played the knock of his life, smacking 29 off eight balls for India to win the Nidahas Trophy.
Not all the 29 runs, only the last six changed it all. He got it off the final ball of the match when India needed five. Many, including his own captain Rohit Sharma thought, at best, he would hit a four to force a Super Over.
If Karthik is seen as a comeback man of Indian cricket, rather than a regular, it is largely because of circumstances that have conspired against him. He cannot have a grouse of not getting chances, though the wicket-keeper batsman can only curse his luck for not getting a longer run to cement his place in the team.
Of all the teams, Karthik made his Test debut against Australia and impressed with his ‘keeping on a minefield of a Wankhede Stadium pitch, where 40 wickets crashed over in just two days, to be seen as a great potential.
Many remember Greg Chappell as the man who divested Sourav Ganguly of his India captaincy and his spat with Sachin Tendulkar, when he told the latter that it was time for him to go. In all this commotion, he also made the blueprint for the GenNext. Chappell shortlisted Karthik and Dhoni as the youngsters possessing the best leadership skills among the men in the dressing room. He saw the spark in the two after spending just a couple of weeks with the team.
Chappell thought both could play as batsmen, leaving the glovework to the other. Dhoni was quick to seize the wicketkeeper’s position on the strength of his explosive batting. Team meetings will always provide a coach the opportunity to assess the cricketing brains of players. He will have his favourites who will provide inputs at team’s strategy meetings.
Despite his talent, Karthik soon realised he could not replace Dhoni behind the wicket and his batting skills. Like it happens with unlucky cricketers, Karthik had to wait in the wings for an opportunity to make all his repeated comebacks. Karthik did the next best thing, force his way into the team as a batsman, a kind of a floater right from opening the innings to middle order and the lower order.
There have been two other men challenging him, the diminutive dynamite Parthiv Patel and Wriddhiman Saha, considered the best gloveman in the country. Both have credentials to be decent batsmen. In 14 years, Karthik has only played 23 Tests, 79 ODIs and just 19 T20s whereas Dhoni had a much longer run of 90 Tests, 318 ODIs and 89 T20s.
Like he did all these years, Karthik bided his time for yet another chance and when he got it this time, he grabbed it. Chairman of selectors, MSK Prasad, a former India wicketkeeper, obviously saw Karthik’s hunger to succeed even after being around for so long, and picked him as replacement for the injured Saha on the tour to South Africa.
After his Colombo heroics, he looks to be the man to be the wicketkeeper-batsman for Tests and after the 2019 World Cup, perhaps, in all three formats. Till then, he will be eying the Number 4 slot in the batting in shorter formats. In the Tests he played alongside Dhoni, he proved to be excellent in the outfield.
Even if some are tempted to get Karthik into the shorter formats, arguing about the lack of punch in Dhoni’s batting, it is difficult to make the change instantly. Dhoni has a serious challenger now. Karthik himself thinks very highly of Dhoni. It is not an overnight transformation for Karthik. He has shown his batting abilities whenever required. The experience and the regular grind in domestic cricket helped him to be back in the reckoning.
The writer is a veteran commentator and the views expressed are personal. He can be reached at sveturi@gmail.com