Dinesh Karthik has had a start-stop career for Team India. While he made his international debut a few months before MS Dhoni, the latter’s humongous success derailed his progress as he remained in Dhoni’s shadow, as the second-choice keeper, all throughout. However, he reinvented himself in style and was being looked upon as India’s finisher in the shortest format following his 2018 Nidahas Trophy final heroics.
Karthik regained his place in the ODI setup in 2017 and managed to seal a spot in the 2019 ODI World Cup in England and Wales. However, he hardly got enough chances and was suddenly asked to bat at No. 4 in the semi-final clash, versus New Zealand, where he failed to get going and fell for a 25-ball 6.
Since then, the 36-year-old has lost his place across formats. Surprisingly, Virat Kohli-led team management have decided to drop him from T20Is as well, where he is highly rated as a finisher and has managed to play decisive cameos batting lower down the order.
The former Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) captain Karthik recently reacted to his omission and still aims to play the two T20 World Cups, in late 2021 and 2022 respectively. He was, thus, quoted as saying in Cricket Next, “What they want to see is not the age but how fit you are. If you can get through the fitness tests, it means you are ready to play for the country. My aim is to play for the country in the T20 World Cups. There are back-to-back T20 World Cups, this year and the next year, and I am doing everything I can to be a part of that.
“I know I have done really well in the past and even when I got dropped from the team after the World Cup, I thought I had done phenomenally well for India in T20s up till then, but because the World Cup did not go well, I got chucked out of the T20 as well,” he added.
Karthik was last seen in action on the cricket field during the first phase of IPL 14 edition in India. In 7 games, the veteran finisher managed 123 runs at 138.20.
