Dinesh Karthik wishes to play Tests for India under Virat Kohli

What’s the story?

It seems to be a day of self-promotion for Team India’s ODI and Test hopefuls. Earlier in the day, Manoj Tiwary made public his wish to be a solution to India’s middle-order woes.

By the evening, Dinesh Karthik, India’s ODI comeback man, claimed that he would be a good fit in the Indian Test team, and hoped to play under the new reign of Virat Kohli and Ravi Shastri.

"I want to try to push for a spot in the Test team now that I am part of the ODI and T20 sides. That is a plausible dream for me. I would love to wear the whites again and play under Virat Kohli's captaincy," Karthik stated.

In case you didn’t know…

A successful domestic season ensured that Karthik made a comeback to the ODI and T20I sides, playing as a pure batsman, with MS Dhoni, and later Rishabh Pant, being the team’s wicket-keeping options.

Karthik kick-started his India career in 2004, becoming a temporary solution to India’s long quest for a quality wicket-keeper batsman. With Dhoni’s emergence, Karthik’s appearances receded, but his batting skills saw him feature in 73 ODIs, 23 Tests and 10 T20Is, a majority of them being as a frontline batsman.

The heart of the matter

The 2007 World T20 winner made a comeback in the Champions Trophy following it up with the recent limited-overs series in West Indies, where he scored an unbeaten 50 in the final ODI and capped it off with 48 in the one-off T20I.

Karthik believes that he can make an impact in the middle-order, given the range of shots in his arsenal. Calling himself a ‘two-skilled player’, Karthik said that he is both a genuine batsman and keeper.

He aims to play the 2019 World Cup by making every opportunity count in the lead-up to it. Conceding that he felt good after making a comeback and scoring runs for the country, Karthik exuded confidence in his abilities to play any format as both batsman and keeper.

What’s next?

Hailing from Chennai, the 32-year-old described Chennai Super Kings’ IPL return as a massive challenge, but revealed that he would love to turn up for his home city despite not playing for the franchise before.

Author’s take

A veteran of 153 first-class games, Karthik’s 15-year career has seen a lot of ups and downs. An acrobatic wicket-keeper to start with, the versatile 32-year-old turned into a frontline batsman, and played in multiple batting positions, even opening in Tests when the need arose.

Now that he has managed to break into the side, a consistent run of form could see him edge out other middle-order competitors, while his lightning fast reflexes in the field boost his resume even further.