I feel ready for the tournament: Karthik

Dinesh Karthik is the in-and-out man of Indian cricket. His career started with plenty of promise in the early 2000s, but ever since the MS Dhoni era began, Karthik was relegated to being the replacement specialist. The latest such episode gave him a spot in the ICC Champions Trophy 2017 squad at the expense of the injured Manish Pandey.

Fortunately for the wicketkeeper-batsman, his latest comeback is for a tournament he loves, especially the warm-up fixtures prior to it. He scored centuries in both practice games – against Sri Lanka and Australia – ahead of the 2013 edition, and seemed all set to score another one against Bangladesh on Tuesday (May 30) before he retired out on 94 from 77 balls.

The knock may or may not give him a place when India starts their ICC Champions Trophy 2017 campaign against Pakistan on June 4, but Karthik was refreshingly candid on its importance given the crossroads in his career he is in.

“I saw this game as an opportunity to showcase my skill and it was nice to get some time in the middle. I feel ready for the tournament now,” he said after India’s 240-run win. “For me obviously it was an important match. I guess the likes of captain and coach are watching me bat, and (for them) seeing where I stand is very important. It's important that whenever I get the opportunity, I try and do the best that I can.”

Apart from the broader viewpoint of his career, Karthik needed that knock after managing only a nervous nine-ball duck in India’s first warm-up match against New Zealand. Karthik struggled to get bat on ball in that game, making some wonder if he’d yet again let go of an opportunity. “In the last game I was a little nervous going in,” he admitted. “Even though Virat (Kohli) tried his best to calm my nerves, it was a little difficult. I was back in the blues after a long time, so I guess I was very over-excited probably. It was one of those days where the bowler and the keeper were playing and I was just standing in between not doing much and getting beaten! It was pretty embarrassing out there.

“Against Bangladesh, I calmed myself down and I thought: ‘it’s an important opportunity for me to go out there and play a few shots’. I worked on my batting a little bit yesterday, got a hit and felt better today.”

It also helped Karthik that he is in England, where he has had a fair amount of success in the past. Apart from his warm-up tons and a half-century in the tournament proper in 2013, Karthik also played a crucial role in India’s successful Test series in the country in 2007, scoring three half-centuries as makeshift opener.

“On a personal note, it's important to feel how it is to be batting back in England. It's a great place to play cricket,” he said. “You have to be aware of the conditions. If the sun is out, it's pretty beautiful to bat. In fact it's better than India because the ball bounces even better and comes on to the bat.

“But if there's a bit of cloud cover, the bowler gets the upper hand. There's a bit of swing and immediately things change and you can see the way the game progresses. There is a certain game flow with the sun being out and not. Other than that, there are small things. There is probably a little more bounce than India. The ball does skid on a little more but at times it's great for stroke-making as well. It's good to play some shots and it's just great to bat.”

Karthik’s international career went downhill after the ICC Champions Trophy 2013, and he hasn’t played an international game since 2014. He has started the build-up to the 2017 tournament the way he did the previous time – whether he can sustain it and move on from being a replacement option remains to be seen.