Karthik Did Not Lose His Place to a ‘Normal’ Player

Dinesh Karthik’s career has seen many ups and downs since he made his debut against England in 2004.

Cricket news: He has always been a special cricketer, says Karthik

With a cut-throat competition in the wicket-keeping department for the Indian cricket team along with Karthik’s inconsistency, soon saw him outside the playing squad.

Moreover the rise of MS Dhoni, who made his debut against Bangladesh in the same year, and his charismatic style of play added to the factor of Karthik losing his place in the side.

Although he kept on playing ODI cricket for his country, it took him almost 8 years to make a comeback to the Test squad as he would take the field against Afghanistan from Thursday for the historic one-off Test match.

Recently Karthik has brought forth the fact that it was the calibre of a great player like Dhoni that has been the reason behind his exclusion.

“I wasn’t consistent enough. There was a highly competitive environment. MS Dhoni was breathing down my neck, who was causing a lot of stir in Test cricket at that point of time. He has gone on to become probably one of the greatest Test cricket captains India has ever produced. So, it’s not that I lost out my place to some normal cricketer,” Karthik was quoted as saying by DNA.

Dhoni has always been an iconic personality in the cricketing world. Even at the age of 36, he has still got the power to shut down his critics with his bat.

He recently showed his swashbuckling version in the recently concluded IPL, where he guided his team Chennai Super Kings to their third title.

“He has been a special cricketer over a period of time and I respect him for that. It was just the fact that I couldn’t at that stage produce enough performances to hold on to my place. I think I need to be honest with myself. I think I wasn’t as good then. I have another opportunity now and I guess I will try to do my best,” the wicketkeeper-batsman Karthik continued his praises for the veteran Dhoni.