India's Fringe Man Dinesh Karthik Makes His World Cup Debut

The year was 2004 when India named a 19-year Dinesh Karthik in the team. Karthik had already made a name for himself in the domestic circuit as a child prodigy and when he stumped Michael Vaughan with an outrageous piece of skill, it looked like he will have a long and bright future in international cricket. However, his international career definitely has been long but not bright per se.

Just when Karthik would have hoped to get a longer rope from the Indian team, MS Dhoni arrived at the scene. Since then, Karthik continues to remain on the fringe. He continued scoring consistent runs in domestic cricket but with India having MS Dhoni at the helm and behind the stumps, there was very little Karthik could do. He did make some comebacks with the passage of time but inconsistency and lack of faith from the team management never let Karthik cement his place in the national team.

It was only around the mid 2017 when Karthik started getting regular chances in the national team. With the likes of Suresh Raina, Yuvraj Singh and other middle-order stalwarts underperforming or retiring, the selectors recalled Karthik and since then he has remained on the scene.

Well, Karthik finally had something to cheer about his international career on Tuesday when he made his World Cup debut. Karthik made it to the playing eleven for the match against Bangladesh, thus playing a World Cup almost 15 years after his international debut. He was a part of the 2007 World Cup squad but did not play any game. In the 2011 and 2015 editions, the selectors had not picked him in the squad.

Having finally broken into the eleven, Karthik would be desperate to get a longer run. And with India desperate to find a solid middle-order batsman especially a finisher, Karthik has the opportunity to seal his spot in the team.