‘It’s a blunder, genuine mistake’ - Dinesh Karthik after missing MS Dhoni in his all-time India XI

Former India cricketer Dinesh Karthik picked his all-time India XI last week but excluded MS Dhoni. He was called out by many on social media and the veteran keeper-batter has issued an apology, terming Dhoni one of the greatest cricketers India has ever produced. 

Under Dhoni’s leadership, India won the 2007 T20 World Cup, 2011 ODI World Cup and the 2013 Champions Trophy. Apart from being an incredible leader, the Ranchi-born was a destructive batter, having accumulated over 10,000 runs in ODI cricket.

Meanwhile, acknowledging his mistake, Karthik explained that he didn’t realise that he skipped the keeper when he put forward the XI and that fans mistook Rahul Dravid as a makeshift option. “Bhai log bada galti ho gaya. Genuinely, it was a mistake. I realised it only when the episode came out. There were so many things happening that when I put this 11, I actually forgot the keeper. Luckily, Rahul Dravid was there, so everybody thought I put in a part-time wicketkeeper. But genuinely, I didn’t think of Rahul Dravid as a keeper,” DK stated in a video released by Cricbuzz.

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“It is a blunder. Itna bada mistake I couldn’t have made. And for me, let’s make it very, very clear. Thala Dhoni is a lock-in in any format that I put. Not only in India, I believe he is one of the greatest cricketers ever to have played this sport,” he added.

Meanwhile, Karthik picked the duo of Virender Sehwag and Rohit Sharma as his openers in the all-time India XI. The middle order had Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli, while he chose Yuvraj Singh and Ravindra Jadeja as the finishers. The 39-year-old finished with a combination of two spinners and two pacers, as he included R Ashwin and Anil Kumble at number eight and nine while Jasprit Bumrah and Zaheer Khan completed the XI.