India cricketer Dinesh Karthik has revealed how difficult it was for him to come to terms with being dropped from the India team, adding that he had made it a big issue of getting his spot back, practicing endlessly, and desperately to again wear the jersey.
Karthik smashed a superb 27-ball 55 in the fourth T20I against South Africa at Rajkot as India defeated the tourists by 82 runs to level the series at 2-2 on Friday night.
Talking about his return to the India side after being in the wilderness for three years, Karthik said, “I was very bull-headed that I want to play… that I want to play this (T20) World Cup (in Australia this year). I think it is very important in my life because I’ve been around for so long, I know what it feels to be dropped (from the Indian side).
“I also know how valuable it is to play for Team India, so I wanted to do something special and luckily Royal Challengers Bangalore gave me the platform, the role that I really enjoyed doing at the backend. I practiced for it, I worked for it and see it come through and then obviously get the love and affection from everyone,” said Karthik in interaction with Hardik Pandya on BCCI.TV.
Karthik added that now that he was being made to feel secure in the side, his next aim was to help India lift the elusive T20 World Cup trophy when the tournament takes place in Australia in October-November this year.
“Now that I’m here, I want to be that guy, who can help Team India win those tough games. I want to be in that situation, stay and do something special every time. I want to do this because I’ve seen this team from the outside. I know how tough it is to be a part of this team… the kind of competition there is, the kind of talent there is in the dressing room is phenomenal. So, just to be around this dressing room, the vibes are very different, I want to enjoy it a lot,” said Karthik.
Karthik said that he had envisaged match situations on the flight from Visakhapatnam to Rajkot, which helped him play the match-defining hurricane knock in the fourth T20I.
“From Vizag to Rajkot we had this conversation about how to counter certain situations. As a middle-order batter, you need to be very aware of who you can target, and how you can do that. That helped, for a start, and obviously, when I’m batting with you (Pandya), it’s very comfortable. It was a very important innings for us because obviously being 1-2 down and then dominating the first 10-12 overs of this game. They put us under a lot of pressure. It was a hard wicket to bat on so I though let us put the pressure back on them. And the way we batted was important,” added Karthik.
