It wasn't easy being Dinesh Karthik. Particularly, when there is an era where India's best wicket kepper-batsman Mahendra Singh Dhoni redefined the role of the man behind the wicket.
33-year-old Krishnakumar Dinesh Karthik will play his comeback match as India will take on Afghanistan in the lone Test match-series on Thursday. He last donned a white cap in 2010. On why he was not picked for the longest format of the game all these years, he was honest: "I was not good enough in presence of a special player like MS Dhoni".
The Chennai-born stumper says: "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."
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Karthik has replaced the injured Wriddhiman Saha for India, after missing 87 Tests since he played the last of his 23 Tests against Bangladesh in 2010. In fact, he was not the lone victim of 'Dhoni's era'. His 87 Test match gap, an Indian record, was followed by Parthiv Patel, who made 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 dashing keeper-batsman said.
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If Dhoni kept him out of Test squad till 2014, the next four years saw emergence of Wriddhiman Saha as one of India's most technically accomplished wicket-keepers. While Saha's injury has opened the door for Karthik, he wouldn't like to over-burden himself by thinking how he could hold onto his place.
"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.
As a senior, Karthik was expected to perform and he has done that with aplomb over the years.
