The irony. Kartik is one of those very few players for the NZ tour who is in all forms of the game. Amazing fact right.
His career stats:
T20: 67 runs in 8 games with highest of 31* (1st ever T20 India played in 2006)
ODIs : 330 runs in 26 games with highest of 63 and average of 22.
Tests: 967 runs in 21 games with highest of 129 at avg of 29
He also figured in the dance reality show in one of the channels. So cricket team in India is going to have clubbers, dancers too in the ranks.
So if one of the openers injure and suppose MS doesn’t play, then this lad is going to be an opener in Tests. And not only then he would disrupt the opening combo of Veeru and Gauti( may be he plays when MS is injured) but also ensure that RD walks in quickly again with virtual opening position. The reason he might open the innings is most of his runs in Tests came in the SA, Eng, Pak series when he was an opener with Wasim Jaffer (Sehwag was dropped to middle order in 2006 SA tour 3rd Test).
And 330 runs in 26 ODIs means he is one of the front runners to come in for injured and rested players. Wow, he along with Rohit Sharma are nice replacement players with an average of 20s. Why ? Just cos they are young. (22 and 21 resp). Contrast that with poor RD. Just cos he is 36 now and wont be playing in 2011 world cup and had a poor Australia ODI series in 2007, he was dropped. People forget that he scored 3 50s in the 3-4 loss to England in England. And on basis of one poor series and of course age, he was dropped. Lads like Karthik, Sharma keep coming into the side even though they aint decent performers just cos they are young. But then is that the ticket for them to be in the team and not performing ? Is that our bench strength which we boast of to be front runners for # 1 ? Faulty selections, quota system, regional attitude of selectors and favoritism of skipper would be major factor if India falls short of the goals it has set for itself in the year.
