Vijay Hazare Trophy | Pleasure to captain such a team, says Dinesh Karthik
Tamil Nadu Captain Dinesh Karthik is very pleased to captain the current Tamil Nadu team that is making winning a habit in the ongoing Vijay Hazare Trophy. Having won nine games in a row , Karthik is focusing on winning the next three games to win the tournament after a very long time.
Tamil Nadu is showing some unbelievable consistency in the ongoing Vijay Hazare Trophy by winning nine on a trot. There was a time when the team was undergoing a winless stint. With the absence of first choice pros like Murali Vijay and Ravichandran Ashwin, it was the responsibility of Dinesh Karthik being the senior of the team to be the glue that sticks the team together. So far he has done that exceedingly well. Abhinav Mukund, Baba Aparajith, Vijay Shankar, etc, have contributed a lot to Tamil Nadu's winning streak and the captain is extremely pleased with the way his team his performing.
"To win nine games in nine, you can't have one performer. Obviously, you need an assortment of performers, and this is what has happened," Karthik told ESPNcricinfo.
"It has been a good run and the boys have responded to the challenges thrown at them in a very positive manner. So, it's a pleasure to be the captain of such a team," he further added.
Karthik has lauded the unity in this team due to the different formats of the game that they have played together. He believes his role is more friendly and that he tries to understand the potential of each and every teammate and get the best out of him.
"A lot of them have played various categories of cricket together. So, there's lot of camaraderie in this team just like any other state team I'd imagine. But, with this team even more, it's very united and my job is to be friendly to them and it's playing both the good cop and the bad cop," he said.
Karthik also has an eye for recognizing talent. He gave Shahrukh Khan a chance in the playing eleven and he kind of cemented his place in the eleven with scores of 49 and 68. Karthik placed the ability of Shahrukh to score and his shot selection and predicted a bright future for the youngster.
"Shahrukh is a young guy and he's growing in his career now," Karthik said.
"He's got some special shots and is very promising but more importantly the journey for him is to understand these situations and try and come out doing the best he can. He's training hard, he's on the path, doing everything he can to succeed," he conluded.