Cricket News: A Few years back Dinesh Karthik avouches that the former Indian skipper MS Dhoni was mentally stronger than him, but his recent heroics for team Indian against Bangladesh has been the subject to discuss as he could be the successor of MS Dhoni when it comes to playing in the finishing role.
MS Dhoni News: Karthik showcases his admiration towards MS Dhoni.
Now the question is can Karthik pull off the things at the NO.6 position for team India, where Dhoni has performed for so long for the Men in Blues?
Karthik said: “So, it is unfair for me to be compared with him. I’ve started my journey. It (final heroics) has given me a new wind of hope. His journey has been totally different. I’ve always been an understudy. I’ve always looked up to him. Today he is helping out the youngsters. The way he has gone on from strength to strength is for people to see and learn,”
Dinesh Karthik has almost 20000 runs in his domestic career, in his spanning 14 years career, it was the eight balls against Bangladesh that brought him into the limelight, the Match winner stated: “It is probably good karma I guess, for all the good things I’ve done all through my cricketing career! It probably helped me hit that six. Probably all the good things you do over the years fetched me that two millimetres extra (beyond the boundary)! It just feels good hat suddenly after so many years there is a lot of attention on me, which is different to what it is when you are playing domestic cricket. From here on I want to do things like that consistently,”
He also added the test call up in the rainbow country was a massive confidence booster for him.
Karthik express himself as a very choppy person, as he believes that his mentor Abhishek Nayar has helped him become sensible cricketer he is right now.
About their partnership, the 32 year old said: “He has been the river and I’ve been the boat. I’ve just gone along in whatever path he gave me. He has made me do things that I’m not comfortable doing. He has helped me prepare for games, made me think better in terms of strategy. It is hard to put in words how indebted I’m to him. He made sure that I didn’t make the mistakes he did.”
Between all the accolades, Karthik express that he ready to deliver for the Men in Blues as a flexible team player, he elucidated: “I have always enjoyed playing as a batsman. In the T20s, I’ve been asked to play at six and seven. I’ve finished a few innings. It feels good and the most important thing is to keep doing it consistently. That’s what I’m focusing on. In ODIs, they are looking at slightly up the order. I’m just keeping all my options open and develop into a cricketer who can play according to the situation,”
Right now the new Indian hero is also gearing up for his new role in the IPL as a captain with the Kolkata Knight Riders, and he feels that the captaincy role comes to him at the right time of his career.
About his new role he said: “It has come at the right stage. I want to embrace this challenge. Being the captain of a team that has a solid fan base is an incredible feeling. I spoke to coach Jacques Kallis. He is someone who speaks very little. But whatever he says will have a lot of meaning to it. Our strength is our bowling attack. We have good experience in the batting department and I’m looking forward to it,”