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Three cheers for
a wicketkeeper from Chennai! |
By Karthik Narayan
 Three
cheers for a wicketkeeper from Chennai! Life has
been in the fast lane for the 19-year old Dinesh
Karthik. Barely having completed a full season
for his home State, Tamil Nadu, he has made it
to the coveted Wicketkeeper spot in the Indian
Team.
One would be very surprised to see the rapid
growth of this lad in the circuits. A place in
the Indian team would take years of good
performance. Of late though the policy of the
Selection Panel has been very unique. They seem
happier playing the new comers and building a
New India, rather than stick to the time and
time again used old timers. That is so very
refreshing, more because this young man of all
of a handful of First class matches has stridden
into the team like no other. And it’s all full
marks to this brave youngster.
In just about a dozen First games, (14 to be
exact), Dinesh Karthik has done his bit with the
bat, with 777 runs including two very handsome
centuries and 4 half centuries. That is very
impressive for any youngster. And both centuries
came in the Ranji Trophy, where Tamil Nadu made
it to the Final, where again Karthik made a
blistering 109* in pretty quick time.
He made his presence felt by all in the Under-19
World Cup in Dhaka with a blitzkrieg 70 runs off
just 39 balls against Sri Lanka. That was the
highlight of that series. That became the talk
of the town, and launched this yet another “kid”
into the International Arena. (The other
so-called “kids” are our very own Parthiv Patel
and Irfan Pathan!)
He has been amazingly consistent and fast
scoring in every game that he has played.
However, his wicket keeping was scratchy in the
Under-19 World Cup series. That has never
deterred him though. He has been working on
this, and this is his primary job in any team he
is going to play in. With the help of a
conditioning camp in Bangalore, with the help of
stalwarts Kiran More and a few others, he has
worked on this aspect of his cricket.
Confidence is the key to playing any
youngster, as captain, Ganguly should play this
youngster in the matches to come, ahead of the
ICC Knockout Trophy, so that he gets his groove
going. With Sachin Tendulkar injured, and a few
others being sick, Dinesh deserves a break into
the team. And he needs to be groomed over a
couple of series. Ideally, India should play him
in the ICC Knockout, and that should give an
ideal opportunity for Dinesh to showcase his
talents to the entire world.
That also would be the best way to gauge and
find where this lad stands in world cricket!
Cricketfundas.com wishes this new kid on the
block all the very best to serve India and do
all of us proud in this Gentleman’s Game which
we all are so passionate about!
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