3 Indian players who would be better off playing white ball cricket alone

3. Dinesh Karthik

Dinesh Karthik - The senior-most player in the current Indian team

Test career

Matches – 26 Innings – 42 Runs – 1025 Highest – 129 Average – 25 Hundred - 1

Dinesh Karthik is the senior -most player in the present Indian team. He has made his Test debut much before Ishant Sharma and M.S. Dhoni. He made his Test debut at the Wankhede stadium against Australia way back in 2004. This was the Test match in which India successfully defended 106 runs in the fourth innings. Karthik couldn’t contribute much with the bat in that low scoring match.

Karthik’s career took a backseat with the advent of Dhoni. After that, Karthik got only limited opportunities in all formats of the game and played in some of the matches as specialist opening batsmen, but what saved Dinesh Karthik’s career was the emergence of IPL.

With his match-winning performances in the IPL, Karthik was always in the thick of the action and Team India’s scheme of things.

Karthik got back his opportunity in Test cricket when Saha couldn’t make the England tour due to injury. Karthik was the first choice keeper for the England tour. Unfortunately, he could not hang on to the opportunities.

The opportunity presented itself in the first Test match at Edgbaston when India were chasing down 196 for a win. Kohli was batting like a champion at the other end. All Karthik had to do at that time was to give him company and push the score along.

But, Karthik didn’t have the mental strength to handle that challenging situation and failed both Kohli and India. He was dropped after the second Test. His replacement Rishabh Pant went on to score a Test hundred in his third Test match and consolidated his place in the team. With the likely return of Wriddhiman Saha after injury, Dinesh Karthik’s Test career is as good as over.

Thankfully for Dinesh Karthik, of late, he has been in some decent form in white ball cricket. He could be the solution to Team India's middle-order woes in one day cricket. He is 33 years old and is at present the second choice wicket-keeper to Dhoni in white ball cricket.

With the possible retirement of Dhoni after the World Cup in England, Dinesh Karthik should look to concentrate more on white ball cricket to prolong his international career.

For the purists, Test match is the best form of cricket. It would definitely hurt the egos of Dhawan, Rohit and Dinesh Karthik if they don’t get opportunities to play Test matches in future, but that is the best way forward for all these players in the long run.