Dinesh Karthik was one of the plethora of wicketkeepers tried out by India in the Ganguly era of Indian cricket before the arrival of Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Nevertheless, having been in and out of the Indian team and in the limited opportunities he's had, he has performed admirably behind the stumps as well as with the bat.
 

Karthik immediately caught the public eye when he debuted for India in ODIs as a 19-year-old in late 2004. The blurry image of an airborne Karthik flying horizontally to stump Michael Vaughan at Lord's has been etched into the mental timelines of contemporary Indian cricket aficionados ever since.
 

Karthik's keeping, though, needed a lot of work; it was a flaw that had led to his axing from the Tamil Nadu side as well. However, a specialized training camp in the off-season under former Indian keeper Kiran More helped him refine his technique and as a result, he came back a more technically accomplished and confident wicketkeeper. He made a comeback to the side in 2006 after Dhoni was rested, and later earned a spot as a pure batsman following the poor batting form of some of the other Indian players. However, he had another dip in form and Virender Sehwag's return to form meant Karthik was out of the playing XI again.
 

He did reasonably well in India's unbeaten Champions Trophy campaign in 2013, starting off with two centuries in the warm-up matches and continuing his good run in the limited opportunities he got during the tournament. It was all too good to last, though, as Karthik went through another familiar dip in form and lost his place in the side. He found some touch early in 2014 and when MS Dhoni pulled out of the 2014 Asia Cup, Karthik got the nod and he played in the middle order.
 

Karthik has perhaps missed out on playing at the highest level during his peak, as have several other keepers in the Dhoni era. The opening finally came after the retirement of Dhoni from Tests in late 2014, but Wriddhiman Saha was picked ahead of him. With Saha turning out to be nearly flawless behind the stumps and gritty with the willow, Karthik's might have missed the bus with the whites, but his batting ability has kept him at the brink of the Indian ODI side. His performance at the domestic level remains consistent and he continues to be the quintessential replacement player for India; one who hasn't quite been able to churn out enough performances consistently to carve out his own identity at the highest level, but has been a useful stand-in when picked.
 

IPL through the years:
 

Dinesh Karthik's struggle to break from the fringes did not have any bearing on his IPL career as he was picked for the inaugural edition of the IPL by Delhi Daredevils for approximately 2.4 crores (525,000 USD). However, Karthik did not do enough justice to his talent as he mustered only 145 runs from 8 innings. DD though managed to enter the semis. After two more years at the Delhi franchise, Karthik made the move to Kings XI Punjab for the 2011 edition.
 

Year 2013 was Dinesh's water-shed year as he smacked 510 runs from 19 innings in Mumbai's victorious campaign. But even that was not enough for Mumbai to retain their designated number 3 for that edition.
 

The next three season saw Dinesh Karthik's shares in IPL scaling a see-saw pattern. In 2014, DD bought his services for 10.5 crores and 2015 saw RCB pocketing him for an unreal 12.5 crores. But the runs didn't come that fluently and his stocks fell. 2016 saw him playing for a fourth different team in four years in the form of the then newly formed Gujarat Lions.
 

D Karthik in successful run chases in the 2018 IPL:
35(29)*vs RCB
42(23)*vs RR
23(10) vs RCB - out in the penultimate over
45(18)*vs CSK
41(31)*vs RR
26(22)*vs SRH

However, the finisher didn't do the job in the play-offs and KKR failed to make it to the final.
 

World Cup through the years

Dinesh Karthik has been in the Indian ODI circuit since before MS Dhoni. After his athletic stumping of Michael Vaughan did the rounds of Youtube, Karthik disappeared from the ODI scene after the arrival of Dhoni, and despite being around for 3 World Cups (2007, 2011, and 2015), he has never been included in the squad for a World Cup. In general, it has been the lack of consistency that has slowed him down over the years. However, in the wake of Dhoni's exclusively sheet-anchor approach over the last few years, India has needed a pinch-hitter who could start hitting the ball from ball 1 - enter, Mr. Dinesh Karthik, who has been picked in the Indian batting order to hit it big in the lower order, along with Hardik Pandya and provide the Indian total some impetus towards the end of the innings. Unfortunately, he is unlikely to be in the starting XI, but he would certainly be experienced enough to take the opportunities when they present themselves, given that 2019 could possibly be his final World Cup, at the age of 33. In addition, he is also likely to fill in for MS Dhoni as a substitute wicketkeeper.