India have ‘a lot of bases covered’– Dinesh Karthik

With India taking on Bangladesh in the final of the Nidahas Trophy on Sunday 18 March, Dinesh Karthik has another opportunity to impress the national selectors and add to his good run in the triangular Twenty20 International tournament.

Karthik has been good all along, both in front and behind the stumps. An aggregate of 56 runs from four innings doesn’t sound like much, but he hasn’t been dismissed yet and has a strike rate of 160. He hasn’t missed much behind the stumps either.

As far as Karthik is concerned, though, he doesn’t really have a choice but to keep doing as well as possible, as Mahendra Singh Dhoni remains the first-choice wicket-keeper batsman for India in limited-overs cricket.

“From where I sit, every tournament is going to be important. I have one bad tournament, I will be on my way out. Every tournament, I have to be on the top of my game, trying to do as well as I can. There is pressure but I need to be able to handle pressure. I need to embrace it rather than run away from it,” he said on the eve of the final.

“Opportunities are few and far between. The competition in the Indian team is so strong that every time you get an opportunity, you have to try to do your best. I also want to be a person, that every time I am given an opportunity, it’s like, ‘wow, this guy can really do well and he needs to be there’. That’s the sort of energy I need to be giving to myself and the others as well.”

India started the tri-series on the wrong foot, going down to an inspired Sri Lanka, but have since won three matches in a row. The top-order batsmen have all had time in the middle, even though the lower middle-order hasn’t, as India have lost just five, four, four and three wickets in the games so far.

“Everybody’s got a decent hit. Up to No.6 everybody’s batted. So that way this tournament has been good and I think we have done a fair job up to now. Going into the final, a lot of bases covered for sure,” said Karthik.

“With Rohit (Sharma, the stand-in captain), the first thing he said was that we will be looking to play exactly the kind of cricket that we have played over the past one year, looking to win every match that we go. Till now, we have been pretty successful.”

As for that final, in front of India are Bangladesh. India have beaten Bangladesh both times in the league stage, but Karthik is wary of the opponents, who have often punched above their weight in the subcontinent.

“They really try hard. They are a side that achieved Test status not many years ago and from there they have propelled forward in all formats of the game. They have done well for themselves. Especially in subcontinent conditions, they are a very good team,” pointed out Karthik. “When it comes to the final, we are trying to focus a lot on our processes, our routines. That’s given us good results till now. We’ll try to keep it similar to previous games and not tinker too much.”

In only one match so far have scores crossed 200 – when Sri Lanka scored 214/6 and Bangladesh chased it down. It’s not been a low-scoring tournament, but scoring runs have looked difficult in the middle-overs at times, and Karthik put it down to the pitch conditions.

“If it goes straight, it’s a flat wicket. If it turns, then that’s also fine. It’s been a tricky wicket in the sense that the odd ball turns and the odd ball goes straight. To rotate strike is not that easy. That’s why you see a lot of dot balls being played, because the batsman is kind of second guessing whether it’s going to turn or not,” he explained.

“The spinners have been using that and bowling pretty consistently, with low economy rates. So the good thing to do against spinners is to have a positive mindset and look to score runs off every ball rather than look to survive there. And then you get a bad ball, the spinner is going to try to double-guess you at times and give you that one bad ball – full or short – and try to make the best use of that.”