DINESH KARTHIK 2.0

Wingman Nayar helps Dinesh Karthik soar

by Shirshendu Roy • Last updated on

Dinesh Karthik's heroics in Nidahas Trophy was the fruition of a carefully crafted endeavour. © AFP

In between the historic Nidahas Trophy final and the first ball of IPL 2018, Dinesh Karthik has flown down to Mumbai to practice at the training pitch of the Dr. DY Patil Stadium. The best of Mumbai's fringe bowlers have been summoned to have a crack at him and overseeing the whole session is Abhishek Nayar. By standing at the umpire's position, he sets the field and speaks with the bowler, and then with Karthik. A low full toss, and the Tamil Nadu batsman whacks it over the square boundaries on the on-side. Immediately, Nayar has a long chat. What would you say to a batsman who has just middled the ball beautifully for a six? The next shot solves a bit of that mystery. A similar ball and Karthik hits it over the off-side field for a six - reminiscent of the shot that sealed the Nidahas Trophy final in Colombo.

It is an exercise through which Karthik gets himself into positions from where he can hit one particular ball over the fence in multiple ways, a skill that has become increasingly important today, especially if you are not a muscle player. Also for a position he bats at [lower down the order], it's this edge that will allow him to finish games. The final in Sri Lanka wasn't the one-off occasion where he finished the game successfully; in three of the four successful run-chases for KKR this season, Karthik has carried his bat through. And in the one he hasn't, Karthik got out only in the penultimate over.

A couple of years back though, it was the same man who feared the worst.

*****

It was an October morning in 2016. Karthik has already played for India on as many as 103 occasions by now and is starting another season with the hope of wearing the blues again. On the second day of the 2016-17 Ranji Trophy opener, a fairly young Tamil Nadu side has laboriously wiped off the deficit in the trying conditions of Lahli against Mumbai, and are looking to cash in after the initial grind. Karthik is expected to build his team's lead, but he unfashionably brings out a scoop shot to throw his wicket away. Tamil Nadu are triggered into a landslide, and Mumbai scrape through the following day to record a surprise win - one that didn't look likely the previous day.

Not long after, Nayar and Karthik are engaged in a lengthy chat behind the sightscreen. It was only a few months ago that the wicketkeeper-batsman had reached out to Nayar to bring his cricket back on track. He may have just three internationals to his name but Nayar has famously mentored many of his Mumbai lads, most notably Rohit Sharma, Shreyas Iyer, Shardul Thakur and Siddhesh Lad among others. It was this that had drawn Karthik to Nayar during a season he felt could be definitive in his fledgling career. The year before, 2015, saw him rise to dizzying heights by raking in INR 10.5 crore as Royal Challengers Bangalore tussled it out in a bidding war. As heavy as the price tag was, the returns were measly as Karthik managed only 141 runs in the season. For Karthik, it is easy to run out of relevance, more so because he's gone missing in the past as well, and hence it's only humane to carry those worries again.

"I think he was struggling just before the IPL auction [his stocks went down drastically as he was bought for only INR 2.3 crores by Gujarat Lions] and at that point in time it kind of clicked to him that if I don't do well now, it will become very difficult from thereon," Nayar tells Cricbuzz.

"We'd always been friends but when this meeting happened, as a player, he was going through a low phase. He was going through one of those phases where he felt that there were no technical glitches but somehow the runs weren't quite coming. The amount of hard work he was putting in, he felt he wasn't quite getting the results. When we started talking, he approached me saying that you have helped so many guys, especially in the Mumbai team - the likes of Shreyas, Shardul, Siddhesh - and their performances have been so good. 'What exactly are you doing with them? ' he asked. I told him one after the other about what I have done with them. He also mentioned about Rohit, with whom I had worked for some time. Then he asked if I can work with him too? He then challenged me, 'If you can get good performances out from me, then I'd know that you can do it with anyone [laughs].'"

"If I had to give you one defining moment, then it is obviously meeting Abhishek and pouring my heart out to him, asking him to help me," Karthik says. "He was playing cricket, and playing against me. For me to understand and seek out that this is the right guy who can help me, I think maybe I was a little blessed to find the right person to a certain extent," Karthik says.

*****

And thus the quest began. At the outset, Nayar made it clear to his mentee that he cannot guarantee him a spot in the Indian team but what he can, is ensure that Karthik starts playing the way he always wanted to. Karthik, for starters, is a person who is wired in such a way where he likes everything around him to be in order, he likes to reason it out with himself so as to why he's doing a certain thing and what he aims to achieve through it. So however contrasting it may seem, Nayar began by first challenging that very trait of Karthik.

"That is when we sat down and discussed that it was not about the destination -- we will put all processes in place and you have to trust me wholeheartedly with that. You can't come and question me, 'Why?'. You just have to do it. -- He did question me a lot, but then, he also used to do what I told him to. There were a lot of things that he didn't like to do but I had to get him into the zone where he started to believe that even those processes would benefit him in some way," says Nayar.

During their time together, Nayar challenged Karthik with daily surprise activities that would help him get used to life outside of a comfort zone. ©Cricbuzz

Nayar first listed out all the feelings that were going on in Karthik's head, shortlisted them before chalking out the road map. "We worked on skills, work ethics, we made a routine for him and he stayed with me for almost a month and a half [in Mumbai]. During that IPL season of 2016, we used to do our discussions/sessions over the phone. He'd a pretty decent season. Karthik then came up and said that he was feeling better because I had mentioned: let's try and see how it comes through before doing something long term. We then jotted down a plan before the Ranji Trophy."

Those one and a half months weren't easy as Nayar challenged Karthik on an everyday basis. However, Karthik never needed to look too far to draw inspiration. Dipika Pallikal, Karthik's wife, is one of India's most successful squash players. Pallikal, much like her husband, had had a tough initiation. Just as her career wasn't going in the direction she wanted to, she decided to put herself through a very tough routine, one that would take her as far as Egypt. Following her time there, Pallikal bounced her way back to win all of her three Women's International Squash Players Association (WISPA) titles. She'd also break into the top 10 for the first time, becoming the only Indian woman to achieve so. In a way, Karthik's turnaround since the start of 2016 would have felt like a deja vu for their household.

"She goes alone to Egypt and stays there alone for months and in a country like that which is not great in terms of infrastructure.. to go there and practice and be alone, leave your family and go there, those are unbelievable things. It is very hard for me, I don't know if I could do the same, I don't know if I have the mental strength to go do something like that. Credit to her," Karthik confesses.

*****

Oft associated with Karthik is the term 'restless'. By his own admission, he is fidgety and likes that adrenaline rush, and doesn't mind an overdose of it. Now, one of the first and most distinct things that one can note about Karthik when he arrives at the crease is how he shuts himself from the world and walks away from the pitch. He goes down on his haunches, closes his eyes and almost slips into a meditative state.

"It's just a routine where I try to close my eyes for a bit and just think a little bit [about the game] before I walk into bat. It's a small routine," Karthik explains.

"I can tell you my way, which is I think if you don't judge yourself by your successes, then you won't be too insecure. What I mean by that is if you prepare in a way and you are focused on your preparation, then you will constantly keep going back to it and relying on it. And if you go wrong, it's because something has gone wrong in the preparation part. That will keep you very secure because that is something you can manage everyday," he adds.

"... as a franchise captain, you have to produce results. It's a very corporate set-up," says Karthik. ©BCCI

In the first press conference ahead of KKR's first game this season, Karthik spoke about the famous Nidahas Trophy final, which as per many, will be the most gripping visual of his career highlights reel. For him, the biggest takeaway is the sense of calm he achieved. "I think as a captain [of KKR] I will be looking to stay as calm as I can. That's a good takeaway for me from that game. It gives me a lot of confidence in my batting skills. It's important that I keep using that as an experience where I can propel to do better things in the future."

Leading a successful IPL franchise like KKR, which has won two titles in the past and enjoys one of the most popular fan bases in the tournament, Karthik knows the challenges that come along with the new job. At the stage of his career he's at this moment, he isn't too flustered though, especially when he looks through the different layers of challenges he's been through, especially in the IPL.

"I have gone through the hardships of all three. When it started, I was a young guy, I was 22, the whole feel of it, I didn't understand what's happening types... that is one... Being picked for a price tag, if you score 400-450 runs, they are like, 'Oh maybe it's not enough.' He needs to do much better because we are paying him so much money. And then, as franchise captain, you have to produce results. It's a very corporate setup, you need to be aware of it, you cannot run away from those pressures," Karthik explains.

More than halfway through IPL 2018, one can stick his neck out and say that Karthik has done well in his new shoes, especially for the faith he's shown in his Under-19 colts, by backing Gill in a critical partnership, by trusting Mavi despite a bad game earlier in the tournament. It's his way of empowering the younger blokes to take their own decisions.

*****

The rigorous schedule designed by Nayar challenged Karthik at more levels than just his playing skills. Everyday was a new day with Karthik unaware of what awaited him. The plans were so dynamic that the 32-year-old was never doing the same thing on the trot. Patterns were created, broken and recreated by Nayar and that helped Karthik break the mental blocks that had developed around his set playing skills.

"If I had to give you one defining moment, then it is obviously meeting Abhishek and pouring my heart out to him, asking him to help me," says Karthik

There was a connect that Nayar felt with the KKR captain. Often derided for his awkward stance, Nayar has been called "ugly" by many, and the Mumbai man could relate to the perceptions that pulled Karthik down on a somewhat similar tangent. "Why I'm so confident of what I do now is because I have seen so much sh*t already. I know how to sideline people if they're talking about me. Dinesh was in the same boat. People talked about him being fidgety, people talked about him not finishing games, about scoring runs but never making an impact. That is all I have heard people say about him. Even when Dinesh was doing well, no one ever counted him in. Everyone spoke about Rishabh Pant, everyone spoke about Ishan Kishan. No one ever spoke about Dinesh Karthik. So it becomes easier for me to help people like that. Because you know exactly what it feels like, because I don't have the talent of a Dinesh Karthik," Nayar says.

"One of the first things about Dinesh is he is a very disciplined person, likes things to be done properly, when what is supposed to happen, how it is to be done, he likes to know everything. I observed Dinesh, and I kind of broke those patterns, and did the opposite. That makes a person very uncomfortable. I developed a bond with him, then started seeing, breaking and creating fresh patterns all the time. I stopped telling him what I am going to do with him now, I used to get him to do very random things. He's a morning person, we kind of tried to change it. Every now and then when he used to get comfortable, I broke that pattern. It was a surprise everyday for him, he doesn't enjoy that but it is something that still happens. Everything is very last minute," Nayar reveals.

*****

Nayar strongly believes that the two most critical questions that were always asked of Karthik - his restlessness and if he could be a finisher for his side - were answered through that one magical knock. Karthik feels, at the cost of being cliched, that it was the byproduct of all the processes put in place.

"The most prominent thing for all who are watching Dinesh is how he is executing the plans that we make. He is clearer in his mind than before, and that is something that has stood out for me. I remember telling a lot of people, who used to say that he cannot finish games, that things change, people change and time changes too. They never thought this could happen. I think he has become far more confident but more important thing is that he's planning very precisely. If you look at him now, he gives you a sense of calm. That's a major change. I don't want to jinx it."

"Nidahas Trophy was very special. I was very happy and nervous. I remember traveling with him to London for Champions Trophy and how we spoke during that phase. The Nidahas Trophy final was of course the icing on the cake, we knew that he's back types, he had played a lot of great innings before but for people to recognize him, I think it was that knock. It was his moment," Nayar says.

For Karthik though, "it is the culmination of what I have done over a period of time, that's how I look at it and if it has probably raised a little bit of respect in a lot of people's eyes, I am really thankful for it."

*****

While emotions poured out unbarred on that March night, Karthik was as collected as he ever had been, even as all his teammates sprang onto him, nearly asphyxiating him in the center of the R. Premadasa Stadium. As he emerged out of that pile, he took a deep breath, and perhaps knew a new turn in life had just arrived.

Roughly 1500 miles away, in India, his mentor, Nayar was himself involved in a T20 Mumbai League match on the same evening. Nayar's team, SoBo Supersonics, needed three off the final ball to win the game and one of his teammates, Dhrumil Matkar hit a six to win the game. Nayar was ecstatic to end up on the winning side but amid all the euphoria, he remembered that one of his own was playing a big game too. "The moment I came into the dressing room, I picked up my phone to check the scores quickly and saw that DK hit a six off the last ball to win the game. I was like, "Sh*t, sh*t..."

Cosmic intervention? "I swear."

Indeed it was, for they had worked so closely together that it had to run on parallel planes. Here, of course, the lines met. At 32, Karthik enters the last chapter of his international career, with hopes firmer than ever. And as he looks into the horizon to make the most of all his opportunities, he doesn't forget to count his blessings.

Asked if he felt that the last chapter of his international career was written for him by somebody else, there's hardly a moment that Karthik takes to answer.

"Abhishek Nayar..."

© Cricbuzz

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