When you are a teenager making your way through the ranks, the last thing you want is to get on the nerves of the captain. A 19-year-old Dinesh Karthik managed to pull off just that with skipper Sourav Ganguly.
Dinesh Karthik is a restless individual. Even when he's batting, his antics are no less than Steve Smith. Karthik will look at the sun, adjust his gloves, walk to the side, close his eyes and do his stretches until the bowling team gets frustrated.
However, this is the case when Karthik has matured a bit. One can only imagine how he would have been when he first came in the Indian set-up as a teenager. Karthik was drafted into the Indian squad for the 2004 Champions Trophy.
Whenever India and Pakistan clash in an ICC event, a lot is riding on the match. In another such high-voltage encounter, the arch-rivals locked horns in the 2004 Champions Trophy and India were in a must-win situation. The Sourav Ganguly-led Men in Blue had to beat Pakistan to advance to the semi-finals.
The ever restless wicketkeeper-batsman Dinesh Karthik, who was just a 19-year-old then and had played only two ODIs, was a substitute during the match. However, one of his actions irked Indian captain Sourav Ganguly.
Karthik ran on to the field as a substitute during the drinks break. He was carrying a lot of bottles and ran towards the team huddle. However, the manner in which he sprinted was so quick that he couldn't stop in time and slipped to crash into no one else but captain Ganguly.
During a talk show, the right-hand batsman shared the incident, "I was a substitute in that game and I had to carry drinks to the players. I was running towards the players to give them drinks and accidentally, I slipped and fell on Dada. He got frustrated and yelled, “Where do you get these players from, who is he?"
The match is not one to remember for Indian fans for reasons more than the Karthik mishap. Apart from Rahul Dravid (67) and Ajit Agarkar (47), none of the Indian batters could put up a decent score as India managed a modest 200 all-out in 49.5 overs.
Irfan Pathan tried his best with 3 for 34, but Mohammad Yousuf took his side past the finish line by three wickets to knock India out of the competition and advance to the semis.
