Indian wicketkeeper-batsman Dinesh Karthik made his international debut at a young age after progressing through the U-19 cricket team’s levels. He has been a consistent player for the Indian team over the course of the last ten years, but due to uneven play in both local and international cricket, he was unable to establish himself as a squad member. Originally a batsman, he was able to extend his possibilities by improving his wicket-keeping abilities, but after the entrance of M.S. Dhoni, he was demoted to the reserve option. His T20 career has been better; in the seventh IPL season, Delhi Daredevils paid a staggering Rs.12.5 crore to acquire him. While he didn’t live up to his price tag that year, he has since played for teams like Kings XI Punjab, Mumbai Indians, Royal Challengers Bangalore, and Gujarat Lions and displayed strong T20 performance. He has been chosen as the Kolkata Knight Riders team’s captain for the upcoming IPL season.
Early Childhood & Life
Krishna Kumar, a first-division cricketer from Chennai, and his wife Padma were the parents of Dinesh Karthik when he was born on June 1st, 1985 in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. Vinesh, his younger brother, is his name.
His father worked in Kuwait during his formative years, and he went to Fahaheel Al-Watanieh Indian Private School, a division of Delhi Public School. He began taking cricket lessons at the age of 10 from his father, who had to give up playing the game to take a steady job and did not want his son to experience the same fate.
Residential Career of Dinesh Karthik
Dinesh Karthik began working out with his father at a young age. He advanced fast through the youth ranks, making his Tamil Nadu Under-14s debut in early 1999 before being promoted to the Under-16 team in November of the same year.
At the age of 15 years and 3 months, he was chosen for the Under-19 team; however, due to poor play, he was later demoted. He was promoted to the Under-22 team after winning back his spot in the U-19 team the following season, which helped him make a compelling case for being chosen for the senior team in the 2002–03 campaign.
He made his first-class debut for Tamil Nadu in late 2002 against Baroda as a wicket-keeping batsman. For the entire season, he scored 179 runs in five games, including an undefeated 88 to save the team from a certain defeat. A position in the national Under-19 team was secured by him with three fifties in his second zonal season, despite the fact that he was passed over for the Duleep Trophy due to a decline in form.
Kiran More, a former national wicket-keeper batsman and head of the selection committee, helped him hone his wicket-keeping abilities. He had 20 catches, 2 centuries, and 438 runs during the 2003–04 Ranji season.
He was given a spot on the Indian team for the U-19 World Cup in 2004, which took place in Bangladesh. The tournament’s semifinals were reached by the Indian U-19 squad.
Worldwide Career
On September 5, 2004, Dinesh Karthik made his ODI debut in the NatWest series against England. He later participated in one game at the 2004 ICC Champions Trophy against Kenya. He then replaced an ineffective Parthiv Patel in the fourth Test against Australia on November 3, 2004.
In November 2004, he then participated in a two-game home series against South Africa, but he only had one respectable inning, a 46-run one in the second Test. He traveled to Bangladesh with the Test team the following month for a two-match series, however, he was unable to help India reach enormous totals of 500 or more in either game.
Karthik’s prospects were limited in ODI competition until April 2006 because of M.S. Dhoni’s inclusion as a wicket-keeper batter, although he was kept around for the home Test series against Pakistan in March 2005. With the exception of 93 runs in the second innings of the second Test, where he put up a 166-run partnership with Rahul Dravid, he once more struggled with the bat in high-scoring games.
In September 2005, after scoring just one run in each game against Zimbabwe, he was replaced by Dhoni, who had a fruitful career to date. Dhoni missed the Third Test against South Africa due to a finger injury, but he was summoned back and he and Wasim Jaffer recorded an opening partnership of 100 runs, with Dhoni contributing 63 runs.
He struggled in the ODI series prior to the Test series but scored an undefeated 31 in the T20 to lead India to victory over South Africa.
His 63 runs on a slow wicket in the encounter at Cuttack in the subsequent four-match ODI series against West Indies helped a struggling Indian squad reach a respectable score and contributed to India’s triumph in that match.
Despite being chosen for both the 2007 Cricket World Cup and the series against Sri Lanka, he did not do well with the bat. He was initially kept for the 2007 ICC World Twenty20 tournament in South Africa but was eventually dropped due to poor play.
After several batsmen were dropped following India’s disastrous performance at the 2007 World Cup, he traveled to Bangladesh as a specialist opening batsman and hit his first century in the second Test in Dhaka. During India’s tour to England in the middle of 2007, he regularly scored 50 or more runs, making him the team’s leading Test scorer. However, he did not take advantage of this position in ODIs.
He was kept as the opener for the Australia series despite a lackluster performance against Pakistan in late 2007, although he only participated in a T20 and one practice match. In July 2008, after replacing Dhoni, who had taken a break, he once again struggled against Sri Lanka and was benched.
He took Dhoni’s place against countries like New Zealand and Bangladesh in the ensuing years, but Wriddhiman Saha eventually replaced him during the South Africa series in 2010. He returned to the ODI team for the 2013 ICC Champions Trophy, riding the momentum of his strong play in domestic and IPL cricket.
IPL career of Dinesh Karthik
Dinesh Karthik was acquired by Kings XI Punjab in 2011 after playing for Delhi Daredevils in the first three IPL seasons and displaying a consistent level of play. He joined the Mumbai Indians the following year, and in 2013, his 510 total tournament points helped the franchise win its first championship.
He has been named the Kolkata Knight Riders’ captain for the 2018 IPL season.
Personal Legacy & Life
On May 2, 2007, Dinesh Karthik tied the knot with his childhood friend Nikita Vanjara in a low-key private ceremony in Mumbai. 2012 saw the end of the marriage, purportedly as a result of Nikita’s liaison with Indian cricketer Murali Vijay.
On August 18, 2015, in Chennai, he wed squash player Dipika Pallikal, an Indian. The two originally ran together in Chennai in 2008, but they didn’t start dating until they ran into each other again in 2013 at Mr. Shankar Basu’s Maverick gym.
Estimated net worth
Dinesh Karthik has a total net worth of about $12 million.
Trivia
Dinesh Karthik and Nigaar Khan competed in the dance reality competition “Ek Khiladi Ek Hasina” in 2008. Among the judges for the competition were former Pakistani cricketer Wasim Akram and Bollywood actress Sushmita Sen.