Dinesh Karthik recalled India's tour to England in 2007 when he was asked to open the innings for his side. He said former India captain Rahul Dravid and MS Dhoni backed him to come good as a specialist batsman.
Karthik knew with Dhoni's rise in Indian cricket, the role of a wicket-keeper batsman was already taken. He had to go back to domestic cricket and enhance his batting skills to earn a place in the side.
The 36-year-old had scored 263 runs during the Test series in 6 innings which included 6 half-centuries. He had opened the innings with Wasim Jaffer throughout the three-match series which India won by 1-0.
Speaking about the opportunity to open the innings, Karthik told former India batsman Aakash Chopra, “I never brood over things. My nature has always been - what is next? That has always been my constant question to myself. At that point, it was to become a batter. There was a spot in the middle-order and then as an opener. One thing that people, including Dhoni, would say - ‘you’re so talented as a batsman, you can open’. So that gave me a lot of confidence and then Rahul Dravid also said you have the skills to be a pure batter. So I went to domestic cricket, scored lots of runs, then got an opportunity as an opener and did well."
Karthik further opened up on Dhoni's arrival into Indian cricket. He said the Jharkhand cricketer 'took the complete country by storm'. “When Dhoni came in, he took the complete country by storm and I knew that door was closed. Keeper-batsman is always a decade-long job. Syed Kirmani was there, then Kiran More. Dhoni was a once-in-a-generation kind of cricketer. Take Ian Healy or Adam Gilchrist, if you are a good keeper, you are there for 10-12 years," he said.
