Dinesh Karthik Reckons MS Dhoni's Bullish Attitude Towards His Technique Helped Him Carve Out A Niche

Dinesh Karthik, Indian wicketkeeper-batsman, opened up about his first impressions of former captain and fellow wicketkeeper MS Dhoni and how he had to reinvent himself multiple times to stay relevant after having lost his place to Dhoni in the initial stages of his career.

Karthik, who made his international debut two months prior to Dhoni’s foray at the top level in 2004, reminisced about the India A tour where he first caught a glimpse of the future Indian captain.

Karthik said that Dhoni had a pretty unique technique in both keeping as well as batting but his bullish attitude helped him carve out a niche in international cricket.

“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,” Dinesh Karthik said on ‘The RK Show’

“When I got selected in the A series, he was part of the team. We traveled together. 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.” he added.

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“Initially it was a little hard”- Dinesh Karthik on losing his place to MS Dhoni

Dinesh Karthik made his debut during the 2004 ODI series in England but he soon had to vacate his spot to MS Dhoni, who went on to impinge a permanent place as in the side as a destructive wicket-keeper batsman.

Karthik recalled the initial phase, admitting that it was a ‘little hard’ to come to terms with the fact that he has lost his place as wicketkeeper.

After having lost his place as wicketkeeper-batsman, Karthik reinvented himself and made a number of comebacks into the side- both as a middle-order batsman and as a Test opener.

“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 said.

“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.” Karthik signed off.

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