Dinesh Karthik

Dinesh Karthik is one of the finest wicket-keeper batsmen in India who was once called ‘Sachin Tendulkar hailing from Tamil Nadu’. ‘DK’ undoubtedly is one of the best batting prodigies from the south.

However, Karthik’s career boomed season by season in the IPL and franchises valued him as a ‘packaged player’.

Karthik arrived like a flash in the Indian national setup after a high-profile 2002/03 domestic season for the U19 Tamil Nadu side. The talented Karthik made his ODI debut at Lord’s after gathering immediate success when he stumped Michael Vaughan in an agile fashion. Unfortunately, Karthik’s international path coincided with the legend of Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Therefore, Karthik had to face many ins and outs from the Indian side. 

Moreover, DK has always found himself at the right place at the right time, when it comes to India winning showpiece tournaments. He was an integral cog in India’s World T20 triumph in 2007. Karthik was also part of the 2013 Champions Trophy-winning squad and started the competition with two consecutive hundreds in the warm-up games. 

That said, the feat for which the titan of Tamil Nadu will be remembered for in international cricket would be the 29* off 8 in the Nidahas Trophy final against rivals Bangladesh. 

The elegant batter might have struggled to cement his place in the Indian side but he has literally flourished in India’s very own festival named IPL. 

Over the years, Karthik has donned a number of jerseys of IPL and a favorite during the auctions. Initially, Karthik was picked by Delhi Daredevils (now Delhi Capitals) in the first edition of the IPL but he could not make the most of it. He spent two more years with the franchise before he was picked up by Punjab for more than double the auction money Delhi had bought him for. His performances, however, did not change and he could not repay the faith the Punjab team had shown in him.

Mumbai Indians too saw the value he could bring to the table and bid for him for a whopping Rs 12.5 crore. With 510 runs in the IPL 2013, it seemed that Karthik had finally come of age but he could not sustain his form and went off the boil in the next three seasons where he saw himself getting to Delhi, Bangalore, and then landed in Gujarat, where he spent two seasons. 

In 2018, Kolkata Knight Riders roped him to lead the side and bought him for INR 7.4 crore. He led the franchise in an extraordinary way and batted in a swash-buckling fashion. Karthik scored 498 runs in that season, and ended the IPL 2018 as the KKR highest run-getter, and made them qualified for the playoffs. 

In 2019, both Karthik and KKR had an average season. Karthik scored 253 runs but his strike-rate was close to 150 in IPL 2019, however, under his captaincy, Kolkata couldn’t finish the league stage in the first-four spot. The next season, he was replaced by Eoin Morgan midway through the tournament. 

As Karthik has matured as a cricketer, he developed skills of hitting boundaries at will and in pressure situations and an enhanced reputation to win tense contests. Now, Karthik took upon the role of a finisher in the side and fared quite well. The wicketkeeper-batsman who has been batting in the middle-order would love to do the finishers job for his Kolkata franchise in the 14th edition of the Indian Premier League. 

(As of March 2021)