India All Set To Witness The Dinesh Karthik We All Deserved

Rahul Dravid talked about Dinesh Karthik's role in the Indian team ahead of South Africa series.

Dinesh Karthik has had an interesting career ever since he first played for India in 2004. In these 18 years, we have seen Karthik playing in all batting positions with different roles, playing with different sets of players - seniors and juniors. 

Although he has played with a different generation of players in different formats and kept changing according to the needs of the format and trends. In these years, Karthik kept going in and out of the squad. 

Yet, Karthik kept improving. Karthik was the perfect backup option that is why even when he was out, he was never out of the contention. However, in these years, Karthik also aged which meant he had to now not only compete with the first choice keepers but also with upcoming young talent. 

It was in 2018 that Karthik showed the world how even when he aged, he aged like a wine fine - only getting better. After Nidahas Trophy magic in 2018, Karthik ended up playing in the World Cup 2019. 

After being dropped for the nth time, Dinesh Karthik is back in the Indian squad and this time he's looking even better than his previous stint with the team. Since 2020, Karthik has played 55 matches, batted 51 innings, and faced 600 balls against which he scored 905 runs at a strike rate of over 150 while averaging over 29. 

Karthik in these years has understood how a perfectly T20 batting looks like - 150 SR, 30 Avg. However, simultaneously, even the team understood where to use the skills of Karthik - the batter perfectly. 

Royal Challengers Bangalore in 2022 simplified Karthik's role as a pace-hitting finisher. Karthik gave brilliant results in the first season of such simplification of role - scoring 330 runs at a strike rate of over 183 while averaging 55. 

What was his role? Just come to the crease after 14 overs and smack the pacers. To make sure Karthik enters at the perfect point, RCB compiled their batting lineup accordingly. 

"At the backend, he's been really been able to be a point of difference in the last few games. He's been picked to bat in a similar position and whether he can replicate that for India as well," said Dravid ahead of the 1st T20I vs South Africa.

Indian team has understood how they can fit Karthik into their plans and that's exactly what Rahul Dravid is saying. He'll bat in a similar position so that Karthik's role is simple.  

If this series goes well for Dinesh Karthik, India's chances of going into the T20 World Cup in October become much better with Hardik Pandya back in the playing XI, most likely to be playing in a position just ahead of Karthik. 

"That happens when you play for your first-class team in a particular role, when you bat for India it might be in a different position, bowl slightly different overs, depending on the requirement of the team. Same thing here - some of the roles that the players might have played for their franchises might be slightly different to the roles we are expecting from them here. Depends on our team, our combinations and players who are already established in certain positions," Dravid on Pandya's role in the Indian team.