Dinesh Karthik faces race against time with KKR captaincy on the line

Prior to 2018, Dinesh Karthik was a no-one, at least in the realm of the Indian Premier League, where he had become a franchise-trotter, going from one ship to another, without one sinking. But when Kolkata Knight Riders purchased him in the 2018 IPL auction for Rs 7.4 crore, the hearts sunk and a new era was at dawn for the franchise, who were still recovering from a hangover caused by Gautam Gambhir’s mystical and pragmatic captaincy. Somewhere, deep down in their hearts, the Kolkata fans knew that they had something on the line, a legacy to rebuild without their adopted son Gambhir. 

That was Kolkata’s problem last season and it wouldn’t have been solved either with the promotion of Russell or the demotion of their skipper Karthik. It is a problem that every franchise has had but in an effective way, have looked beyond it in building a setup, which they failed. But why is all getting focused now? After KRR's opening game against Mumbai Indians earlier this week, Karthik’s captaincy has come under the scanner but not for the first time. 

For a miracle worker like the Tamil Nadu man, why did it all not work? Well truth to be told, it’s a combination of several things that went the other way for him. As rightly and truly proclaimed, luck only favours the brave and Karthik with his team wasn’t brave enough to be lucky or lucky enough to be brave! Constantly though, he was trying it all out. But as easy as it sounds, social media has really turned the way the game has been looked at, with criticism coming in from all corners of the web. The 35-year-old’s positives from his tenure as Tamil Nadu’s captain has twisted his fate around in the Purple and gold jersey and the team wasn’t getting any younger. 

Back home, he had similar pressure from the group to get success in the white-ball format and they went to lose twice against Karnataka, arguably one of India’s best domestic sides in the shorter formats. In both occasions, Karthik absolutely gobsmacked and trusted his spinners to come up with the goods, with the absence of Vijay Shankar and Ravichandran Ashwin for most parts of the competition. Despite that, with a relatively younger squad, they came out on top against several top sides on the back of him knowing that they still had faith in him as a leader. Does this group have the same amount of faith, or are they showing enough faith for the Tamil Nadu man to lead them to glory?

However, for Karthik, criticism and time are exactly on the different curves. While the criticism is growing bigger and mightier by the day, the time he has on his hand is getting slimmer and slippier by the moment. If he has to stand by the franchise’s historical success and pathos and ethos, he has to start being himself from the first place. He has to start making those decisions and from now, with Kuldeep Yadav, Andre Russell and, more so, the batting order. 

A Shubman Gill-Sunil Narine partnership at the top of the order isn’t sufficient to win the league, it needs someone who has naturally inhabited the position, someone of a mould of Rahul Tripathi, who can knock the ball as well play it sanely. Below the same batting order, someone like Nikhil Naik isn’t going to win you matches but someone like Siddhesh Lad, who has proved himself with Mumbai, at least domestically, and someone with potential like Rinku Singh, might! In terms of bowling options, he has been limited and crippled in the past, with injuries to Mitchell Starc, Kamlesh Nagarkkoti and Shivam Mavi. This season, he has two of those trio fit and raring; in case of Mavi, we have already witnessed a glimpse of his roar. 

Two bowlers, who have been picked by the franchise, on Karthik’s instructions - Manimaran Siddarth and Varun Chakravarthy - are there in the squad. If there is someone who can utilise spinners to the best use in the country apart from MS Dhoni, it is the Tamil Nadu man, who has boomed using the spinners’ trade on the domestic circuit. He knows how to handle Siddarth in the powerplay and definitely can get the mystery spinner in Varun talking. But all he now needs is that push, the backing from the fans and the management to go out and put the ball out of the ballpark.

For the fans, they should understand that Russell winning them games isn’t enough, they need the entire team talking, just like how Gambhir had created a dynasty, all out of nowhere. And it all comes with patience and support. Otherwise Gambhir, too, wouldn’t have excelled at the franchise.