Former wicketkeeper-batter Dinesh Karthik on Friday, waxed lyrical about the depth of the current Indian cricket team during the second chapter of Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s (RCB) Indian Sports Summit at the Padukone-Dravid Centre for Sports Excellence here.
“India, right now, is in a privileged and blessed place because of the assortment of cricketers it has across skillsets. Their ability to perform under pressure in big moments is what defines them,” he said.
The Indian Premier League (IPL) and a solid domestic structure are the two factors that have contributed to building a strong and purposeful talent pipeline in the country, according to the RCB mentor and batting coach.
“The IPL and Indian domestic cricket are talent factories. Ever since the IPL became a part of Indian cricket’s fabric, two to three teams could be fielded in international cricket at the same time. It has provided two things. The first is belief. For a long time, India has been a cricketing nation which was only happy to compete. But now the attitude has changed to wanting to win. Two, with the influx of money, the infrastructure has grown and automatically the quality of sport has developed.”
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In less than nine months, the India white-ball side has won two ICC trophies – the T20 World Cup 2024 and the recently concluded Champions Trophy. And, the 2018 Nidahas Trophy final hero believes skipper Rohit Sharma deserves a major chunk of the credit. “India is led by a very able leader in Rohit Sharma. He’s got the respect of his peers and most importantly, he walks the walk and talks the talk.”
When the conversation veered to the growing importance of number-crunching in the modern game, Karthik said: “Data, a very interesting concept, wasn’t that much of a parameter until a few years ago. A lot of players used to make use of the word ‘feel’ — ‘This is how I feel, I like doing this because it gives me a certain amount of success.’ But data, backed by visual evidence, exposed one’s weaknesses. The players then realised the importance of using data in decision-making.”
Karthik himself had to resort to stats to figure out his vulnerabilities in the 2014 season of the IPL. According to CricViz, the glovesman was dismissed on four occasions off the short ball, his average a paltry 4.75 when the ball rose on him. Additionally, the middle-stump line bothered him; he was removed five times in 45 such deliveries.
Dinesh Karthik, RCB mentor and batting coach, during the Indian Sports Summit at the Padukone-Dravid Centre for Sports Excellence.
| Photo Credit:
SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
Dinesh Karthik, RCB mentor and batting coach, during the Indian Sports Summit at the Padukone-Dravid Centre for Sports Excellence.
| Photo Credit:
SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
“They were hardly bowling in areas I was strong at, and my weaknesses were being targeted a lot more. I went back, watched my videos, and realised what I needed to do to get better.
“Matchups is the name of the game. You understand which batter has what weakness against which bowler but then adaptability also becomes very important. On one day if some bowler is bowling really well, you need to take that into consideration. If you remain blindfolded and think you will only follow the matchup, you will be found out.”
The 39-year-old signed off on a cheeky note as he explained why it was difficult to be associated with RCB. “I have been very popular thanks to RCB’s social media following (16.4 million followers on Instagram). But you need to distance yourself to gauge what that popularity is doing to you. If you need external validation to feel good about yourself, RCB is a tough place to be at because the fans are so loyal they can’t sometimes deal with the team not doing well,” he laughed.