Krishna Kumar Dinesh Karthik is an Indian Cricket player who played as a wicketkeeper and a batsman for the Indian cricket team. He made his debut in the national team in the year 2004. Initially, during his junior career, Karthik played as a batsman, but eventually developed as a wicketkeeper to strengthen his future career. In 2004, Dinesh Karthik made his ODI and Test cricket debut in the 2004 Under-19 World Cup. He was a regular wicket-keeper Test for the Indian cricket team and also appeared in few ODIs as well. After India at 2007 Cricket World Cup made a dismal performance, the selectors made Krishna Kumar Dinesh Karthik and opening batsman, instead of wicket-keeping, in the Test team. He also regularly played ODIs, in the middle order. Due to Karthik`s poor performance during late-2007, he was removed from the Test team. He is still one of the heavy scorers in domestic cricket.

Early Life of Krishna Kumar Dinesh Karthik
Krishna Kumar Dinesh Karthik was born on 1st June 1985 in Chennai, in the state of Tamil Nadu. Dinesh Kartik started playing cricket at the age of 10. His father, Krishna Kumar, was a first-division cricketer himself and trained his son hard from an early age. In his junior career, Kartik trained under Robin Singh, and played as a batsman and played for Tamil Nadu. He made his international debut for India in the year 2004. And since then he has been a regular member of the team for varying period, including his role as a specialist opener and non-keeper in 2007. Dinesh during his initial days was mainly a batsman, later turned into wicket-keeping to improve the future prospects in cricket. All throughout his career he has been criticized for unreliable glove-work which is symptomatic of a non-specialist keeper.

Dinesh Kartik made his debut in first class cricket in 2002 as a wicketkeeper-batsman against Baroda. Throughout the series, he batted well but Kartik did a lot of wicket-keeping error and was ruled out for the final match. Then he joined a wicket-keeping camp under the guidance of Kiran More where he improved his techniques much. In the next season, Dinesh Kartik was selected for Ranji Trophy, where he earned 438 runs with two centuries at an average of 43.8.and took 20 catches in this series. After that he made many great performances in domestic cricket but did not managed to enter into South Zone for Duleep Trophy.

After his debut at the first class level in the late-2002 for Tamil Nadu as a 17 year old. But he was dropped after the first season because of his clumsy glove-work. He was however called back to the team for 2004 Under-19 World Cup. He made his international debut in the late 2004, in the wake of an apparent crisis of a proper wicket keeper.

Career of Dinesh Karthik
It actually took just one good season for Dinesh Karthik to transform himself from an ambiguous second choice wicket keeper for Tamil Nadu to a serious contender for the place in the Indian Cricket Team. He is an attacking player on the field, though his face may suggest otherwise. As a 17 year boy, playing his first season of domestic cricket, he showed glimpses of batting expertise but his keeping behind the stamps weren`t up to the mark. He worked on his weakness and improved his game tremendously.

Due to poor run of form at the domestic levels saw him being dropped from the side in the Ranji Trophy knock out matches. But his impressive run of form at the Under 19 World Cup in Dhaka, which included a crucial knock of 70 runs against Sri Lanka and two important centuries at the Ranji Trophy knock outs and added to it, his impressive show behind the wickets resulted in him emerging as a contender for the national squad. Dinesh, on August 2004, was picked up for the Indian team as a replacement for Parthiv Patel, and made his debut in NattWest Challenge game against England where he pulled off a magnificent stumping.

After being a part of the ODI team he was called up for the Test team and he made his debut against Australia in the fourth Test at Mumbai. After not so impressive run at the Test circuit, with just one fifty in ten Test matches, he was dropped from the side and Mahendra Singh Dhoni was picked in his place. But he returned for India`s tour to South Africa towards the end of 2006.

He cemented his place for the ODI and Test side and was selected for the Bangladesh tour, which was India`s first assignment after the rather forgettable World Cup, as a specialist Test opening batter.

He scored his maiden Test century in the second Test match in Dhaka. Soon M.S. Dhoni became indispensable for the Indian team and life became difficult for Karthik. He got to play for India only when Dhoni got rested. On one such instance, coming at the back of tremendous success at the domestic level, he was rather ordinary behind the stumps for the tour of Sri Lanka in 2008. He had a good season at the domestic level in 2008-09, keeping his hope of representing India, ahead of Parthiv Ajay Patel. He scored three centuries in Ranji Trophy and captained Tamil Nadu through to the semi-final, and followed it up with two centuries in two Duleep Trophy matches. That earned him a comeback to all three Indian squads for the tour of New Zealand.

Cricket Statistics of Dinesh Kartik

Batting and Fielding Averages

	Mat	Inns	NO	Runs	HS	Ave	BF	SR	100	50	4s	6s	Ct	St
Tests	23	37	1	1000	129	27.77	2000	50.00	1	7	132	4	51	5
ODIs	52	44	7	1008	79	27.24	1353	74.50	0	5	106	10	31	5
T20Is	9	8	2	100	31*	16.66	88	113.63	0	0	14	1	5	2
First-class	96	147	9	5376	213	38.95	9136	58.84	15	26			235	21
List A	125	107	13	2973	154*	31.62	3276	90.75	3	14			105	23
Twenty20	91	80	15	1701	90*	26.16	1302	130.64	0	9	171	43	56	24

Bowling Averages

	Mat	Inns	Balls	Runs	Wkts	BBI	BBM	Ave	Econ	SR	4w	5w	10
Tests	23	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
ODIs	52	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
T20Is	9	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
First-class	96		114	125	0	-	-	-	6.57	-	0	0	0
List A	125	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Twenty20	91	1	12	10	1	1/10	1/10	10.00	5.00	12.0	0	0	0

In the 2009 Indian Premier League (IPL) conducted in South Africa, Karthik played in all 15 matches of Delhi and made a score of 288 runs, passing 40 on three occasions and making 17 dismissals. He again got an opportunity in India`s tour of West Indies, after Virender Sehwag was injured. Karthik also played in the 2009 ICC Champions Trophy in South Africa, but after his poor performance in Sri Lanka, he was removed for the first two matches. In December 2009, Karthik played in the ODI team during the Sri Lankan tour of India as a replacement of Dhoni.

Life Outside Cricket for Dinesh Karthik
Karthik took part in the dance reality show Ek Khiladi Ek Hasina partnering with Nigar Khan