Indian wicketkeeper-batsman Dinesh Karthik recently opened up about his first impressions of legendary MS Dhoni and how he had to time and again reinvent himself to be in contention after losing his place to former captain in the initial stages of his career.
Karthik made his international debut two months prior to Dhoni’s in 2004, but the Kolkata Knight Riders captain got limited opportunities at the highest level due to Dhoni's reliance presence, given his full-time captaincy of the Indian cricket team, while the Ranchi lad went on to become one of the best captains, as well as, earn the legendary status in the international cricket.
Reminiscing about the India A tour where he first caught a glimpse of the future Indian captain, Karthik said Dhoni had a pretty unique technique of batting and keeping, but it was his bullish attitude that helped him carve out a niche in international cricket.
Speaking to Radhakrishnan Sreenivasan’s ‘The RK Show’ on YouTube, Karthik recalled: “I think he handled the pressure very well. He was a pretty unique human being, in the sense, he has his own way of doing things. When I got selected in the A series, he was part of the team. We traveled together.”
The veteran keeper further added, “He had his own way. He was coming from Bihar at that time, he had done well for the stage. It was Dilip Vengsarkar who spotted his talent. He was a little unique with his batting and keeping. But he was very strong about his technique and very bullish about his technique and then carved a niche for himself in the forthcoming years.”
On his strategy from auditioning for various roles after being mostly in and out of the Team India, Karthik said: “Initially it was a little hard to know you have lost your place in the team when somebody who has come and doing well. The next question is 'how to get back into the team'. So I found ways in trying to be an opener, trying to be a middle-order batsman.”
He signed off by saying, “I was juggling roles to make sure I was part of the team as well. I ended up doing that pretty convincingly because whenever I used to bat up the order, I used to bat. When I came back to my state team, I had the opportunity to open the innings and I would do it.”
(With India Today Inputs)
