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It took a hopelessly bleak situation, an almost
lost match, to bring out the best in him. And the crowds.
Dinesh
Karthik was born on June 1, 1985, in Madras. On March 18th, Dinesh
Karthik was born again in Colombo. It was a Twenty20 delivery. It took all of eight
deliveries for him to be born again. Everything you knew of Karthik before,
ceased to exist. Karthik seized Bangladesh and our collective cricketing
imagination in the matter of minutes.
For Karthik
to be born again, he had to be forgotten yet again. It took Ravi Shastri to
pull off yet another masterstroke. Yet to be dismissed in the tournament,
Shastri backed Karthik to remain not out yet again – to such an extent, he nearly
did not bat in the finals.
In a tricky
chase, Vijay Shankar batting in his first T20 International innings, was
promoted before Karthik. In the 17 deliveries he faced, Shankar too, like
Karthik, was threatening to be born again. The four consecutive dot balls he
faced, were poised to be linked to his Aadhar card. Would Shankar ever live
down Shastri’s folly? But Shastri wanted him to separate himself as a man from
a boy, what had happened?
And then
Karthik happened. Not BossDK, but Karthik. Not switch hit Karthik, but Bang,
Bang, Bang, Bang Karthik. Who was this imposter? Was he even an imposter? What
did India know of Karthik? What did you know? What did I know? Were we too
absorbed in the Mahi fandom to even give another wicket keeping batsman an
outside chance? Were we any different from the selectors for more than a
decade? Were we also confusing formats?
Was Karthik’s
batting, forgotten in the shadow of his wicket keeping? Or was it in the shadow
of the aura of the big Banyan tree that was Dhoni?
Who knew
that Dinesh Karthik was the man of the match in India’s first T20 international
match more than 12 years back. That from that match, only he, Dhoni and Raina
play for India now. That was also the only T20 match, Tendulkar represented
India in. In a relatively low scoring match, Karthik scored 31. He did not keep
wickets.
Only
recently, the Kolkota Knight Riders (KKR) did not retain Gautam Gambhir,
instead, they made Dinesh Karthik their captain. As trending cricket jokes go,
that cut through Twitter. Almost everybody laughed. Such is the perception of
Karthik as a player. He made his Test debut more than a year before Dhoni, his
ODI debut a month before Dhoni, and his T20I debut in the same match as Dhoni.
While he won the match, Dhoni failed to score.
Then again,
it wasn’t as if Karthik didn’t have his share of chances. Or did he? Even when
he looked to be batting better than anyone in the ODI team, he failed to
convert those brilliant cameos (as in the West Indies in 2009) into something
more substantial. Opening the innings in Kingston, he scored a quick 67. But it
will be Yuvraj’s 131 that will be remembered from that match. In a reduced 27
over match, Karthik opened with a 43 ball 47. But it was Dhoni’s 34 ball 46
that won him the man of the match.
In his ODI
career spanning 13 years, Karthik has played 79 matches with nine 50s but no
hundreds. Dhoni has played in 318 ODIs. That Karthik has played so many and
still remains part of India’s deeper selection consciousness is creditworthy.
That he has
played only 19 T20 Internationals (including nine not outs) is somewhat of a
mystery. Not that India plays many T20Is but Dhoni has played 89 T20Is in a
similar time frame. In a way, it shows the frame of mind of India’s selectors –
how they continue to mix and muddle formats?
While it is
arguable that Karthik isn’t India’s first choice Test or ODI wicket keeper
batsman, surely he makes the T20 squad on his batting alone?
For too
long, India has been ODI crazy, and this has impacted both their Test and T20
selections – often sacrificing brilliant specialists just to see the wrong guy
play the wrong format.
While T20
cricket isn’t only about what Karthik did yesterday, having a batsman or two who
can plunder in the mix will always threaten to win you lost games. In T20, this
threat is way more than in the other formats.
Not having
such a batsman, especially a finisher who can switch matches in the blink of an
eye, is spitting at the format.
In the 19th
over, Dinesh Karthik twitched his way to the crease. Or did he? He often
twitches. His is that kind of character. It’s as if there are ants in his
pants. He often looks as if he’s breakdancing at the crease. Either that or
some form of Karthik dance. It’s distracting.
Yesterday
though, Karthik did not twitch. He was still. He made Bangladesh twitch. First
ball six over long on. Next ball four. Third ball six over square leg. Colombo
had become Chennai.
Five needed
off one ball. Dinesh Karthik cover drives Soumya Sarkar for six. India wins.
Dinesh Karthik does not twitch. He’s a journeyman cricketer. And on long cricketing
journeys such as his, there are some off days, some on days. Later, Karthik
will tell you (or did he?) that he was just on.
Oh, and
while we’re at it, how about a little introduction. Hardik, meet Dinesh. It can
often be lonely at the bottom. And what’s better than one T20 finisher? Surely
two. Time to tango.
First published here
