Early Years
Karthik began playing cricket at the age of ten, after a two year stint living in Kuwait, where his father Krishna Kumar worked. Karthik was taught by his father, a first-division cricketer from Chennai. Disappointed that his own career was hindered when he was forced by his family to put his education first, Karthik's father did not want his son to suffer the same way, and trained him hard from an early age. Karthik honed his reflexes at this young age by having his father throw hard leather balls at him at high speed. Initially he played in the youth teams for Tamil Nadu as a batsman who was learning to keep wicket, and was regarded by Robin Singh as having very high levels of fitness.
Karthik steadily ascended the youth ranks. He made his debut for Tamil Nadu Under-14s in early-1999, and after scoring 78 and 26 in his two interstate matches, was promoted to the Under-16 team in November, still less than 14 and half years old. After spending the entire 1999–2000 season in the Under-16s, he was promoted to the Under-19 team at the start of the 2000–01 season, aged 15 years and 3 months, despite scoring only 52 runs at 10.40 at Under-16 level and still being eligible for that age group. The selectors’ decision did not result in increased productivity from Karthik; he scored 133 runs at 22.16 in seven innings with a top-score of 39, and was demoted back to the Under-16s in November, and responded immediately with 124 in his first innings against Karnataka. He added two further fifties in the season, including a 99 against Kerala. Karthik ended with 367 runs at 52.42 for the season.
Karthik regained his position in the Under-19 team at the start of the following season, which he opened with 150 against Goa. After scoring 314 runs at 46.42 in eight matches, he was promoted to the Under-22 team and made 78 runs at 39.00 in five matches. Karthik was rewarded with selection for South Zone, which represents the country’s south, in the Under-19 zonal competition. He was not a success with the bat, scoring 0, 1 and 2 in his 3 innings. In April 2002, Karthik was selected to play against the touring Australian Cricket Academy, and scored 125 in the second of two matches.
At the start of the rest of the 2002–03 season, Karthik began to make an imposing case for senior selection. In his opening match of the season for the Tamil Nadu Under-19s, he scored 227 in his team’s 392/7 against Goa, and after making a duck in the first innings against Hyderabad, he hit 126 not out in the second innings. He then registered his third century in four innings, cracking 235 against Andhra Pradesh. His form tapered off and he only made 111 runs in his next six innings, but was nevertheless called up to the senior team to make his first-class debut.
Read more about this topic: Dinesh Karthik
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