Dinesh Karthik played his final Test for India in 2018.
During his international career, former India wicketkeeper-batter Dinesh Karthik was known to have been making comebacks after comebacks. Quite often during his international career, Dinesh Karthik was under the shadow of several other cricketers, most notably MS Dhoni.
However, time and again, whenever he played for India, he kept producing impactful performances, and who can forget his 29 runs off eight balls against Bangladesh in the 2018 Nidahas Trophy final?
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SPE
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SPE
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WEY
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91YC
155/3
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BAD
66/1
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USAU19-W
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In 2018, Dinesh Karthik made a return to the India Test squad after eight overs as Wriddhiman Saha was injured. He played just three matches though (One vs Afghanistan and two vs England) and ended up scoring just 25 runs from five innings. It was in the 2018 away series against England wherein India handed a Test debut to Rishabh Pant, who replaced Dinesh Karthik in the playing XI.
During an episode from the Sky Sports Cricket podcast on Monday, the 40-year-old recalled how his and former England cricketer Nasser Hussain’s retirements were almost similar yet different. Both of them played their last matches for their countries at Lord’s, and Ravi Shastri was India’s head coach when Dinesh Karthik played his last match.
“There’s not much in common between me and Nass and I’d like to keep it that way. He finished at Lord’s. I finished at Lord’s. The only difference was that he went and knocked on the coach’s doors, saying I think I’m done. In my case, the coach came in and said, ‘Don’t bother coming in the next Test, you are done,” Dinesh Karthik said during the podcast which had Nasser Hussain, Ravi Shastri and Michael Atherton as the panelists.
Dinesh Karthik’s comments came in the aftermath of Nasser Hussain’s retirement story that the former England captain recalled. Nasser Hussain had scored a century during the Lord’s Test against New Zealand in 2004. That Test also witnessed the debut of Andrew Strauss.
“I knew I was gone. Strauss came in for that game, and Michael Vaughan was injured. I went to my old coach, Duncan Fletcher, I worked with him for four years. I knocked on his door and said, “Dunc, tomorrow’s gonna be my last day. In the hope that Duncan would say, ‘Nass, you’re playing pretty well’ but he went, ‘No, tomorrow is going to be your last day.’ I said, ‘Thanks, coach.’,” recalled Nasser Hussain.
“Strauss was getting loads of runs; he was looking like he would get a hundred in both innings. I got him run out. I got one of my best mates at the other end. I hit it through the covers, got a hundred. We beat New Zealand. That’s a decent way to go out. Vaughan came back in. Strauss, we knew, was a superb Test cricket,” he added.
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Seven years after his final Test match for India, Dinesh Karthik is now working as an expert for Sky Sports for the ongoing England vs India Test series. The five-match Test series is currently 1-1 after two Tests. England won the first Test in Leeds by five wickets, whereas India clinched a 336-run win in the second Test at Edgbaston. The third Test at Lord’s will begin from Thursday (July 10).
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