NEWS
Follow UsFor the longest time in his career, Dinesh Karthik had made the top order his own. During his formative years, Karthik usually batted at the top of the order, either No.3 or 4, with 96 of his 234 appearances coming in those positions.
It wasn’t as if Karthik was batting badly either at the top of the order, with an average of 25 and a strike rate of around 127. But as the competition developed both at a franchise level and at a national level at the top of the order, Karthik had to reinvigorate his career, and that’s where his close ally and training partner Abhishek Nayar came to the rescue.
Nayar has been one of Karthik’s closest aids in cricketing circles. The 38-year-old constantly travels to Mumbai to have specialized training camps with the former Mumbai cricketer. It was Nayar who influenced Karthik to take up a much more specialized position—becoming a finisher.
“In 2018, Abhishek [Nayar] said we can do something really special if you bat in the middle. It is the toughest spot to play and you'll get much lesser balls but you can create a much better impact. In time, people will start understanding it is specialist position, let's be ahead of the curve and let's start practicing with winning games in mind,” Karthik revealed in an interview with Cricbuzz.
While Karthik stayed at the crease 37 times at the death whenever he batted at No.3 or 4, coming out to bat with just a few overs to spare is quite a daunting task. Especially for someone who is seeking to make a comeback to the national team. That’s where Nayar came into the picture, making Karthik understand the value of batting in the middle order.
“I innately had this ability over a period of time where be it domestic cricket or a lot more... I used to be there at the end. It was a habit, so he said we'll make that a habit but we'll use the aggressive version in T20 cricket. Even though I had done bits and pieces here and there, it became a specialist position for me between 5,6,7 - depending on the situation. Entry point as they call it [today], going in at the right time to get the job done,” he added.
“My constant question was: how do I play for India? If you take Abdul Samad for example. He's actually had a very decent season this year, not a great season but a decent season. You might look at the playoffs and say he's gotten out in the big match but the fact is that he's got about 180-200 runs at a strike rate of 165-170 and average is probably 15 or 16 [182 runs at a strike rate of 168.52 and an average of 18.20],” Karthik explored.
In his specialist role at the death, Samad has scored 121 runs, striking at 201.67. But very often, the catch is that the average for a finisher is quite low, and in Samad’s example, just 20.17. While in comparison to other batters, it is quite a low figure in the ballpark, his impact on the Orange Army has been profound, considering the value of death-over runs. But Karthik insisted that the general public hasn’t yet come to the realisation of a finisher’s value in T20s.
“But the fact is that, if you look at it from a middle-order point of view, he's had a very decent season. It's like a No. 3 or 4 getting 350-400 runs. It's nothing earth shattering but it is a very good season. He's been effective, he's played some impact innings and that's all you can expect. Still the understanding of that is not that high with the public.”
“I think with the franchises, they do understand it's a specialist position and they look at it differently. So my counter to Abhishek was if I score 150-200 runs over a season because I only play 80 to 100 balls across 14 matches, how do I stake a claim for the Indian team? So he said at this point of time it might sound difficult, but if you do it consistently and well enough and win a few games where your impact is good, people will start looking at how you're playing with a very different lens,” he added. 
But ever since he switched as a finisher, primarily holding the fort at the death, the numbers speak for themselves. Since IPL 2022, when Karthik became a finisher representing Royal Challengers Bengaluru, he has transformed the scene at the IPL.
In 35 appearances at the death, Karthik has amassed 607 runs in RCB colours, with a strike rate of 195.2, on par with the likes of power-hitters like Tim David and Heinrich Klaasen, finding a boundary every 3.4 balls. Not only did Karthik uplift the fortunes of RCB with his batting at the death, but he also made a return to the Indian team for the 2022 T20 World Cup in Australia, with his hard work being rewarded.
“That's when our chance will come. And we have to be able to transfer that when we go for Team India as well. He said in Team India there are a lot of top-order batters so there's always going to be a fight, so you much rather at this stage take up a position which is a lot more challenging,” he said of becoming a finisher.
“One where you cannot be consistent, but when you do deliver it'll be an impact innings. So I said okay, I took up the challenge and that's how we trained and played our practice - 6-ball slots, in one over how to score 14. In 4 overs if you have to chase 45 or 50, how do we plan, what sort of positions to get into, which bowlers to target. We started detailed practice like that,” he concluded.
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