10 Reasons why Dinesh Karthik must be persisted with

[Ram]

1)He is one of the most promising young batsman to have emerged in India in the last many years 2)At 22, he has already won matches for India in both forms of the game 3)He has, at various points of his short career, shown admirable mental toughness and strength 4)Fundamental fact, Karthik can play. Till this match, he was India’s leading run-scorer in tests this year. That achievement, in a team that has Tendulkar, Dravid, Ganguly and Laxman is no mean feat. 5)He has shown he can play the moving ball, by top-scoring in the Ind-Eng test series, a series that was dominated by seamers 6)He has proved that he can come back from setbacks. Just a day after he was dropped from the one-day team, he went on to score one of the best centuries in the challenger trophy finals’ history 7)He hasn’t been at the batting crease long enough for anybody to come to definite conclusions about his form or technique. 8)He is a brilliant fielder and adds a lot of energy to the fielding side, which is vital, though not the strongest point for the his inclusion in the test side 9)History has shown us that we have discarded test openers too fast, only to regret those decisions later. Sadagoppan Ramesh, SS Das, Akash Chopra were all dropped in haste, even though they had promising starts to their careers 10)The Potential replacement that is being touted around, Virender Sehwag, has shown that he is well past his best as a player and there is not a strong enough case for his inclusion in the test side.

[Ram]

Mods, please move it to the articles section after sometime if you deem it fit enough.

[Lurker]

Sriram, The easy reason why KKD should not be picked is that he is playing in a role that does not come naturally to him. By nature he is a keeper-batsman. It is only that he has been asked to open that he became an opener. Players who do this are more often than not doomed, unless you are a Vijay Merchant or Sehwag. KKD is neither. In my opinion time is quickly running out for him. He has already played 17 tests in about 2 years, 2 less than Yuvraj Singh who has played 19 in 4 odd years. And Yuvraj has already mentioned he would not mind opening. Not to mention many other batsmen in Indian domestic cricket who wouldnt mind stepping in even as an opener(thanks mainly to seniors occupying 4 middle order slots). Long story short KKD needs to fire in 2nd innings or he may very well see him outside the playing XI. xxx

[chamatkar]

If nothing else (which is not the case), #10 gets my vote to DK.

[fineleg]

If nothing else (which is not the case)' date=' #10 gets my vote to DK.[/quote'] TINA being cited as the reason!? KKD's career is being killed by making him a Test opener. he has good talent and will serve india well in the future as a lower middle order and/or keeper. dont finish him off by making him open tests. thats not his area.

[chamatkar]

TIOSAA is being cited as the reason.

[Bumper]

Marirs, everything you say is true about Sehwag too. But obviously his bad form is being held against him. In KKD's case, his bad form is not backed by the stellar years that Sehwag had as an opener. I am a KKD fan, myself. I like the lad. He definitely has a role to play in our long term prospects. But in the short term, (esp with the Australian tour in mind & more so, if we win this test match), the selectors must gamble with Sehwag in Bangalore. Its extremely important that we go to Australia with a 'returning to form' Sehwag. India did so well last time because of two reasons: 1) We got steady starts from Sehwag & Chopra on a regular basis. You cannot overstate the importance of good starts in Australia. It makes our middle order that much better 2) Our middle order came together as a unit. With our middle order not as strong as it used to be, a good and momentum filled start is imperative for our success Down Under. We'll get creamed if we get off to poor starts. And I dont expect Jaffar to rack up as many boundaries as he did yesterday. Aussies do their homework well. They will choke up the runs & exert pressure from both ends. We need one opener to break the shackles. IMO, the best qualified man to do that job is Sehwag.

[Ram]

Sriram, The easy reason why KKD should not be picked is that he is playing in a role that does not come naturally to him. By nature he is a keeper-batsman. It is only that he has been asked to open that he became an opener. Players who do this are more often than not doomed, unless you are a Vijay Merchant or Sehwag. KKD is neither. In my opinion time is quickly running out for him. He has already played 17 tests in about 2 years, 2 less than Yuvraj Singh who has played 19 in 4 odd years. And Yuvraj has already mentioned he would not mind opening. Not to mention many other batsmen in Indian domestic cricket who wouldnt mind stepping in even as an opener(thanks mainly to seniors occupying 4 middle order slots). Long story short KKD needs to fire in 2nd innings or he may very well see him outside the playing XI. xxx

Lurks, arent you contradicting yourself when you say Yuvi has shown his willingness to open, coz you yourself have pointed out Karthik is a keeper batsman and not an opener ?

[Ram]

I am a KKD fan, myself. I like the lad. He definitely has a role to play in our long term prospects. But in the short term, (esp with the Australian tour in mind & more so, if we win this test match), the selectors must gamble with Sehwag in Bangalore. Its extremely important that we go to Australia with a 'returning to form' Sehwag.

Bumps, what makes you so hopeful that Sehwag can re-creat his old magic, when , in almost 15 months of international cricket, he is yet to play a single knock of any significance ? The gamble that you are talking about, is almost most certainly going to fail. and what kind of message will it send to youngsters in the team, when a newbie is dropped from the team after just 2 bad performances, to accommodate an old-pro ?

[Lurker]

Lurks' date=' arent you contradicting yourself when you say Yuvi has shown his willingness to open, coz you yourself have pointed out Karthik is a keeper batsman and not an opener ?[/quote'] Maybe so but the point was KKD's slot is under serious challenge by players like Yuvraj and all the points that you mention - talent, good fielding, won matches for India etc - would weigh in Yuvraj's favour much more than KKD. In fact between the two I shall go for Yuvraj easy. And yes I am certainly not in favour of stop-gap arrangement like Yuvraj or KKD as opener but we have to realize that these guys are changing their games cos seniors are occupying the middle slots and they are not budging anytime soon. xxx

[Bumper]

Bumps, what makes you so hopeful that Sehwag can re-creat his old magic, when , in almost 15 months of international cricket, he is yet to play a single knock of any significance ? The gamble that you are talking about, is almost most certainly going to fail. and what kind of message will it send to youngsters in the team, when a newbie is dropped from the team after just 2 bad performances, to accommodate an old-pro ?

And what makes you think that the odds are any better with KKD ? Its a simple risk-reward ratio math. The risk level is pretty much the same whether it is KKD or Sehwag. (In Sehwag's case, he may fail in all 8 innings, KKD might score a 30 or a 40 in a couple of innings, but overall both of them dont induce any sort of confidence) However the reward factor is heavily in favor of Sehwag. KKD is yet to score a 100, inspite of hitting his purple patch. Sehwag has scaled dizzy heights, including two fighting 100s against Australia.

[Holysmoke]

KKD has to be persisted with, and will be, till the end of the series. I dont know why we are even discussing this. Kumble said he will be persisted with...

[Guest dada_rocks]

I can identify at least five more promising batsman than Karthik, yes Parthiv patel is one of them

[fineleg]

I can identify at least five more promising batsman than Karthik' date=' yes Parthiv patel is one of them[/quote'] Parthiv Patel has shown that he has the footwork and temperament to be a good opening batsman (dont take him as a keeper though)

[Holysmoke]

:hysterical:

[Guest dada_rocks]

Parthiv Patel Suresh Raina Virendra Sehwag, Badrinath, Manoj Tiwari, Rohit Sharma.. all these guys are way better batsman than Karthik

[chunky_lafanga]

Karthik ki...I don't dislike him but wtf is he playing at?

[sachin_fan]

Sriram, what worries me is the way KDD has been getting out. He has been playing on the up in the very first over and edging it to the keeper or the slips. Its a disappointment to see that he hasn't corrected the way he plays. The fact that he is trying to play forcing shots in the very first over tells me that he is looking to come to form by playing aggressively. But if he does not give himself time to judge a wicket, then it makes little sense This is my major concern wrt KDD. Tell you what, seeing the way he plays, i think the worry of getting dropped is playing on his mind. Someone needs to talk to him about this. Hari? any contacts with the present players as well :D

[Guest dada_rocks]

He did exactly same thing even in england but got life at right time

[fineleg]

I think it will take a while to convince MM, Chandan et.al. that KKD is not a Test opener. Maybe the Aus series is the way to convince them :P