I've been waiting for Chennai Super Kings to pick me since 13 years: Dinesh Karthik

Dinesh Karthik has been living under the shadow of MS Dhoni ever since he made an initial impression with the Indian team in 2004. Dhoni made his debut late in 2004 and since then, Karthik has had a stop-start career. With experience on his side, it was not until recently that he got to lead an IPL side.

Karthik has been one of the most successful players in the league’s history. Having represented six IPL franchises so far, the wicketkeeper-batsman hasn’t yet played for the team from his hometown. Karthik is one of the few players who has come out of Tamil Nadu and been successful or globally recognised. Unlike his Tamil Nadu teammates– Murali Vijay and Ravichandran Ashwin– Karthik never had the fortunes to play for Chennai Super Kings (CSK).

Karthik was hopeful that CSK would pick him in first-ever IPL auction

Recently in interaction with Cricbuzz, Dinesh Karthik recalled the first-ever auction when he had hoped to be picked by CSK. At the time, he was a regular member of the Indian squad in all three formats and the only one from Tamil Nadu. Karthik recalled that he was sure that CSK would pick him but he wasn’t sure whether they will make him captain or not.

“In 2008, I was in Australia and the auction was happening. In the lead up to that, I was convinced that the biggest name from Tamil Nadu who is also playing for the country…I’m sure they (Chennai Super Kings) are going to pick me. The question is whether they are going to make me the captain or not…that was going on in my head,” he said.

However, MS Dhoni was bought by CSK for INR 6 crore, the highest bid in the first auction. The 34-year-old revealed that Dhoni was around with him when the auction happened. He even said that he felt that they might pick him later sometime but that never happened. Unfortunately, Dinesh Karthik has been waiting for one call from CSK for 13 years but he has never got that call.

“And the first name they picked as Dhoni, for 1.5 million USD (INR 6 crore in 2008) and he was sitting right around the corner with me. And he didn’t even tell me that they are going to pick him. Probably he didn’t know. But that was the biggest dagger to my heart. So I thought that they would pick me later. It’s been 13 years and I am still waiting for that elusive call from CSK,” said Karthik while picking his all-time IPL XI during a conversation with Cricbuzz.