Dinesh Karthik is a 23-year-old professional cricketer from Chennai, India. The wicket-keeper batsman has represented India at the highest level, managing to make it to the team purely on his merit as a batsman in the presence of MS Dhoni as the wicketkeeper. Karthik represents Tamil Nadu on the domestic circuit and he played for the Delhi Daredevils in the inaugural season of the Indian Premier League.
Dinesh Karthik made his domestic cricket debut for Tamil Nadu at the age of 17 in the 2002-03 domestic season and although he impressed with the bat, his wicket-keeping skills were not up to snuff, and as a result, he was dropped from Tamil Nadu’s knockout matches.
Karthik steadily improved his skills and after an impressive showing at the Under-19 World Cup in Bangladesh and two centuries in Ranji Trophy knockout matches, the Chennai youth was called to the Indian national team as a replacement for Parthiv Patel. Karthik made his One-Day International debut against England in a Natwest Challenge match in August 2004, following which he was included in the Indian Test side in the fourth Test of Australia’s tour of India. A few lacklasture performances saw Karthik dropped from the team in favor of MS Dhoni.
Karthik however made a strong return to both the Test and One-Day squads, this time as a specialist batsman. He registered his maiden Test century in the second Test on Indias’s tour of Bangladesh. Besides his century, the youngster has registered seven half-senturies, with an average of 29.30. Behind the stumps, Karthik has effected 51 dismissals, including 46 catches and 5 stumpings. Dinesh Karthik is yet to score an ODI century, but he has scored two half-centuries with a highest score of 63.
Karthik’s lively nature, livewire fielding and at times unorthodox batting have made him perfect for the Twenty20 format. Karthik made his T20 debut against South Africa, where he scored 31 and was instrumental in India's winning the game. That score remains Karthik’s highest T20 International score to date. He was also part of the Indian team that won the Inaugural ICC World Twenty20 Championships.
For the inaugural season of the Indian Premier League, a Twenty20 tournament set up by the BCCI with top players from around the world competing against each other in teams from eight cities, Dinesh Karthik was part of the Delhi Daredevils team where he performed the role of wicket-keeper and batsman. In his domestic Twenty20 outings so far, Karthik has managed a highest score of 56 not out at an average of 21.47. As a wicketkeeper, he has picked up 29 dismissals in as many games, including 20 catches and 9 stumpings.