36-year-old Dinesh Karthik said he is looking forward to the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 auction and that playing in the T20 tournament which provides him with an opportunity to showcase his hard work and training is in itself an hour.

Dinesh Karthik, who has been playing for Kolkata Knight Riders since IPL 2018, said it’s tough to pick a team of his choice for IPL 2022 but said that it will be great if he can play for Chennai Super Kings, the 4-time champions from his hometown.

Karthik has played for as many as 6 franchises in the past but hasn’t represented MS Dhoni-led Chennai Super Kings so far in the 14-year-long history of the IPL.

Karthik is currently putting in the hard yards in Mumbai under the guidance of friend and mentor Abhishek Nayar, focusing on sharpening his finishing skills in the T20 format, according to the Press Trust of India.

Wicketkeepers from India are generally in demand and Karthik, despite not playing for India since the 2019 World Cup, has kept himself in shape by featuring in the domestic tournaments for Tamil Nadu. Karthik also hit a hundred in the final of the Vijay Hazare Trophy earlier this year.

With the IPL 2022 auction is set to be held in Bengaluru on February 12 and 13, Karthik shed light on what it means for him to play the tournament. Karthik has played 213 IPL matches and scored 4046 runs, including 19 fifties.

“It’s very hard for me to answer this question because it will be a very cliched answer. I’ll try and do everything that I can, not only to do well for the franchisee I play for but for myself also,” Karthik told the PTI.

On the possible ‘homecoming’ with CSK, Karthik added: “Look, it’s great if I can play for CSK. I’m from Chennai.

“But at the end of the day, what’s important for me is whichever team that I get to play in, it will be an absolute honour because as I said, all this practice that I’ve been doing these days is to try and do well in a tournament like the IPL.”

KARTHIK HOPEFUL OF INDIA COMEBACK

With India continuing to try out players for the middle-order in limited-overs cricket, Karthik senses an opportunity.

Citing the examples of Shikhar Dhawan, who is 36, and Pakistan’s Shoaib Malik and the recently-retired Mohammad Hafeez, who both have touched 40, Karthik said age is not a criterion for selection anymore.

“Age is definitely not the thing that a lot of normal people look at it (for India comeback). Shikhar Dhawan was the highest run-getter (in ODIs in South Africa) and we are the same age.”

He also believes that in the shortest format one tends to get better with age.

“People tend to figure out, understand their body, the amount of cricket they can play and all of those reasons, like a big example was the way you know Shoaib Malik and Hafeez were able to contribute to Pakistan in the T20 World Cup.

“Experience is a very important factor in multi-nation tournaments. You could see that very evidently in the last few tournaments that have been held.”