Published By: Saksham Mishra

Dinesh Karthik's masterclass on comebacks

Dinesh Karthik making a comeback to the Indian team at 37 years of age is an inspiration to several cricketers.

The sheer longevity

It is astounding to imagine that Dinesh Karthik made his T20 International debut before MS Dhoni. In fact, he was not only part of India's first ever T20 International against South Africa but also won the player of the match in that game .

Now that it has been almost half a decade since MS Dhoni retired from T20 International cricket, Dinesh Karthik is still going strong.

He had the best strike rate among batters having faced a minimum of 100 deliveries in the IPL and also got into the Indian team on the back of his brilliant performances in the IPL.

Multi-dimensional cricketer The batter has reinvented himself into the finisher's role over the last few years. He always had the skill and has also betted in the middle order and even opened the batting for India in test cricket and that too in England.

Hence, it is not as if Dinesh Karthik is a one dimensional cricketer but the demand of a format like T20 is that you have to be a specialist in a particular role and there are slots now for which teams pick individuals.

Dinesh Karthik has worked very hard on his game and prides himself in maximising the last 10 or 15 deliveries which is what he generally gets to face.

IPL heroics Karthik was in red hot form for Royal Challengers Bangalore in IPL 2022 and scored 330 runs from 16 matches at an average of 55 and a strike rate of 183.33 with the best of 66 not out. The best part about him was that he hit 27 boundaries and 26 sixes which is reflective in his strike rate of over 180.

After being picked in the Indian team as well, Dinesh Karthik has done a stellar job and has all but secured his spot in the Indian team for the 2022 T20 World Cup which will be held in Australia

This is not the first time Dinesh Karthik is making a comeback into the Indian team and has made a habit of it. He was dropped from the side after the 2019 ODI World Cup but has continued to put in the hard yards and has finally received the fruit of his toil.