Dinesh Karthik reached India's team first, then spent years behind Dhoni
Dinesh Karthik debuted for India as wicketkeeper in 2004, before MS Dhoni. Within months Dhoni's explosive batting had taken the gloves, and Karthik spent much of the following two decades as the understudy summoned when Dhoni was hurt or resting. Yet he kept turning up, and kept finding ways to matter.
Born in Chennai on 1 June 1985, he partly grew up in Kuwait and started playing at ten, coached by a father whose own cricket had been cut short by his studies. To sharpen his reflexes, his father fired hard leather balls at him at speed. He began as a batter and took up keeping with Tamil Nadu's youth sides, reaching the state's first-class team at around 17.
His Test debut came in Mumbai in October 2004 on a treacherous pitch where 40 wickets fell in two days; he scored little but was praised for his glovework. After Dhoni's 148 against Pakistan in an ODI, the selectors switched keepers. Karthik reinvented himself as an opening batter, and in 2007 he made his maiden Test hundred, 129 in Dhaka, then topped India's scoring in England with 263 runs, a half-century in each Test, as India won a series there for the first time in 21 years. His form dipped in the months that followed and he lost his Test place, appearing only sporadically for India through 2022.
He still collected firsts. In 2006 he became the first Indian named player of the match in a T20 international, and he belonged to the squads that won the first T20 World Cup in 2007 and the Champions Trophy in 2013. In domestic cricket he scored 183 and 150 in a Duleep Trophy final, only the third player to make hundreds in both innings of one.
Franchise cricket suited his power and finishing. He captained Kolkata Knight Riders from 2018 to 2020 and became the fourth Indian to play 300 T20 matches. Since retiring he has commentated for Sky Sports and coaches batting and mentors players for the IPL side Royal Challengers Bengaluru and London Spirit in The Hundred.
Source: Dinesh Karthik
