Many budding wicket-keepers like Dinesh Karthik, Deep Dasgupta and Parthiv Patel lost their place from the Indian team because of the rise of Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Karthik agrees that Dhoni is a world class players and he didn’t lost his place to a normal cricketer.
“Look, I think I wasn’t good enough, rather I was not consistent enough. That was a highly competitive environment and there was someone called MS Dhoni breathing down my neck, which caused a lot of stir in world cricket at that point of time. He went on to become one of the greatest captains India has ever produced,” Karthik said ahead of his comeback Test against Afghanistan, starting 14th June.
Karthik, who last played a test way back in 2010 against Bangladesh came in as a replacement for injured Wriddhiman Saha.
Karthik will play a test match after missing 87 test match gap which is an Indian record. This record was earlier held by Parthiv Patel, who recently played a test match at South Africa tour making a comeback after 83 Test matches.
“So, I didn’t lose my place to some normal cricketer; he (Dhoni) was special. I respect him for that. At that stage, I could not produce enough performance to hold on to my side. I need to be honest with myself. Now, I have another opportunity and I guess, I will try my best,” the Chennai batsman said.
After the retirement of Dhoni, Bengal batsman Wriddhiman Saha has been a regular member in Indian test team.
However after his injury it made way for Karthik in the team, who is not burdening himself for retaining his place in the team.
“If you go deep into the question on what I should do to keep out someone else, then you are taking energy away from the fact that you are competing with somebody (Afghanistan). That puts extra pressure to what already is there,” Karthik said.
“What I am trying to do — as cliched as it may sound — is trying to be the best cricketer that I can be, not on the field but also off the field. I am trying to be consistent there, even if I don’t get an opportunity. Even if I don’t play the sport at the highest level, I want to be content with the fact that I have given everything I had — both on and off the field,” he said.
“If I go into your question and start thinking about that aspect, then it will be subjective — I need to score this, I need to score that. I don’t want to keep it that way. I want to keep it in a way which is try and prepare as much as I can. And given a chance, try and deliver. I am keeping my whole process that way.”
He also said that the qualification of Tamil Nadu in the knockouts stages of Ranji trophy have kept the competitive spirit active in him.
“I enjoyed playing the Ranji Trophy. It is a totally different challenge. There are not many people coming and watch you play, yet we play the sport because we enjoy playing it. I am lucky that way because I have always done that subconsciously. I have enjoyed being a part of Tamil Nadu team.
“Credit to them (TN Ranji side) as well for having put up with me over the tough years. I am really indebted to them. It is very easy to fade away but for Tamil Nadu to constantly competing in Ranji Trophy, that was challenge. Every alternate year, we put up performances. We were consistent. Every two years we would hit the knockouts and go to semis or final,” he said.
