I am very comfortable to bat at any position: Dinesh Karthik

Dinesh Karthik has been part of various franchises over the years in Indian Premier League but he has been bought by Gujarat Lions in 2.3 crores (INR) for IPL 9. He has been most talented wicket-keeper batsman in Indian cricket, however, he could not prove his worth in international arena due to inconsistency in performance but this time around in IPL 9, he would like to make an impact to get back into the Indian team.

Karthik played for Mumbai Indians, Royal Challengers Bangalore, Delhi Daredevils earlier in IPL, said he was very happy to play for Gujarat Lions.

“I am very happy to be part of this new team. It is an exciting time for all of us. This is a new franchise so it will be an exciting time ahead for us” He added when asked about his feelings after being bought by new IPL franchise.

He is an innovative batsman as we have seen him play some cheeky shots on quite a few occasions in the IPL. He added that, “Yes, there will be some innovative cricket but you have to balance both innovative and traditional shots because we saw how Virat Kohli batted in the T20 World Cup and scored many runs so to be more consistent, you have to mix some innovative shots and at the same time some cricketing shots as well.”

Dinesh Karthik who will play along with recently retired New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum, James Faulkner, Dwayne Bravo said that he is very excited to play with those players.

“Yeah, definitely we have some good power hitters in our lineup. It is important for us to perform and see what are our strengths, weaknesses, assess our condition correctly and play some good cricket” He added.

“Yeah, I am very comfortable and I am sure that I will be bat somewhere in the top-order. It all depends on team composition and what we are looking at and how flow goes and we will take it from there” He also told when asked about his batting position in Gujarat Lions team in IPL-9.

Rajkot’s wicket is a batting wicket and he added that: “Yes, everybody knows that it is a good batting wicket so we would like put some good scores and it will be a good experience for all of us”

The Lions will play their first match on April 11 at Mohali against Kings XI Punjab. “One of the key thing in the IPL is to stay calm because lot of times, there will be a situation where crowd pressure comes and T20 is such a format that you are able to stay clam during tense situations and it will really help in executing the right shots.” He said

Dinesh Karthik, Praveen Kumar, head coach Brad Hodge, bowling coach Heath Streak and other domestic Indian players arrived here at Rajkot on Friday and Saturday in different groups, while rest of the players like Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja, Brendon McCullum etc. will join the team soon.

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