Dinesh Karthik: A cricketing journey through heavy traffic and untimely speed-breakers

Before the arrival of MS Dhoni at the international stage, the Indian team was struggling to find a reliable wicketkeeper batsman for a couple of years. The wicketkeeper-batsman crisis even forced the team to ask a specialist batsman, Rahul Dravid, to keep wickets.

Just three months prior to Dhoni's debut, a young wicketkeeper-batsman from Tamil Nadu was tried during the tour of England. Touted to be a highly talented young player, many expected him to conclude the search for a wicketkeeper batsman.

The search did end, but only after the arrival of MS Dhoni.

If we look at the present set of cricketers, then Dinesh Karthik is definitely one of the most skilled batsman. He has almost all the shots in the book, and his class and technique make his batting a treat to watch.

But despite making his ODI and Test debut in 2004 at the age of just 19, he has played just 80 ODIs and 24 Tests till now.

Although he was dropped from the one-day team after just one innings, he got a run of 10 Test matches at the start of his career. But he failed to impress with the bat and his not-so-convincing wicketkeeping ultimately led to him being dropped from the team in favor of Dhoni.

After being dropped from the Test team, Karthik made a comeback into the ODI team in 2006, but spent most of his time warming the bench. Later, he was tried as an opener in Test cricket. Despite putting up a good show as an opener on the Bangladesh and England tours, he was sidelined after the home series against Pakistan.

In the limited opportunities that Karthik got in the next four years, he failed to impress and was dropped from the team, seemingly for good, in 2010. But he made another comeback in during the Champions Trophy in 2013 after a good domestic season and IPL. Unfortunately however, he couldn't hold his place in the side for long and was dropped after the Zimbabwe tour.

Things didn't go according to plan for the next few years in the domestic circuit. But after scoring heavily in the 2016-17 domestic season for Tamil Nadu, he was recalled to the Indian squad ahead of the 2017 Champions Trophy, in place of an injured Manish Pandey.

Since this latest comeback, a new version of Karthik has been seen: more consistent, more hard-hitting, and as always classy. In the limited opportunities he has got, he has put up impressive performances which include an 8-ball 29 in the Nidahas Trophy final - where he single-handedly snatched victory from Bangladesh.

After that, Karthik led Kolkata Knight Riders in the 11th edition of the IPL where he scored 498 runs at an average of 49.8 and a strike rate of 147.77.

His international career has undoubtedly been through far too many ups and downs. Some may say he was inconsistent during his early days, while others may say he was unlucky to not get opportunities consistently. However, the fact remains that even after being around for 14 years, he is yet to establish himself in the Indian team.

Keeping in mind the middle order concerns in India's batting unit, someone as dexterous as Karthik deserves a longer run in the middle order. It's sad to see someone of his caliber struggling to find a place for himself since the past 14 years. Hopefully, he will get more chances to prove his value in the middle order before the 2019 World Cup.

A career as long as Karthik's should not be confined to a mere 8-ball knock. It would be a tough pill for him to swallow if he is not given a few more chances to prove himself.

A player of such class can prove to be a match-winner for India in the years to come.