MI Dinesh Karthik: Hope to make CLT20 Special for Sachin

A livewire on the field, Dinesh Karthik was one of the key players for the Mumbai Indians in their successful IPL 2013 campaign. The wicketkeeper-bat, who made his way back into the national squad based on a string of good performances in the IPL and the domestic season before that, continues to make his presence felt and is raring to go as the Rohit Sharma-led MI squad stakes a claim to the Karbonn Smart Champions League Twenty20 2013 trophy. (Also Read: MI coach John Wright: Tendulkar's Keen and Fresh)

While speaking to clt20.com ahead of their tournament opener against the Rajasthan Royals in Jaipur on September 21, Karthik talked about learning from Sachin Tendulkar and his hopes to make the tournament memorable for the Master Blaster, who will be participating in a Twenty20 tournament for the last time.

Excerpts from his brief interview:

You have been in good form recently. What are your thoughts going into this tournament?

Definitely, I am in good form. It is a good tournament for us and important for me as well. So I am really looking forward to it. 

Having won the IPL 2013, what kind of pressure does the team feel coming into the CLT20? 

We have regrouped after a long time. It has only been a couple of days, so we will like to start things fast. This is important as there is no time to take things easy. It is not a very long tournament, so it is important to be ready from ball one. So we are really looking forward to a good tournament. 

You had spoken about making it back into the national team during the IPL and you did that. How crucial was the IPL for you?

IPL was very important, because it was a good follow-up to a good domestic season. Obviously, IPL is of a slightly higher standard (than domestic cricket) where there are a lot of international quality bowlers. So I wanted to do well there, and touchwood things went well. 

What aspects of your game have you been working on?

Definitely, technically I have worked on a lot of things, and tried to get better mentally as well. At the next level, it is very important to be strong mentally and I am trying to up my ante there. 

When it comes to technicalities, I have worked a bit on whatever is required to do well like my initial movement and those sorts of things. And mentally also, I have worked in between games to accept failures and to keep moving forward; those are things that I have been working on. 

Who would you credit for turning things around?

Definitely, for me technically, Prasanna Agoram has really helped me. So I would give him a lot of credit for my technical aspect. And mentally, I have been working on it myself. And generally, with a good domestic team like Tamil Nadu, you learn a lot of things and you keep striving to be the best in the country. It is a good challenge to be playing for that team. 

As far as CLT20 2013 goes, it will be Sachin Tendulkar’s last tournament for MI. Are there any plans to make it special for him?

The best thing would be for us to win the tournament that would be the greatest thing to happen to him. Having said that, it is not an easy thing. It is a day-to-day process and he is somebody who is very involved with the team and it is his last tournament with the team. So we will try and make it as memorable as we can for him. 

What have you learnt from Sachin Tendulkar?

On and off the field the way he is, his simplicity, the way he is composed while batting and his balance are great. There are a lot of things that I have learnt from him. 

source: clt20.com