"It's great if I can play for CSK"- Dinesh Karthik

Veteran Indian wicketkeeper-batsman and former Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) captain Dinesh Karthik is looking forward to the upcoming mega IPL auction, scheduled on February 12 and 13. The right-handed batsman is busy sweating it out in the nets under his mentor Abhishek Nayar.

Karthik, who has represented as many as six IPL franchises during his 13-year-old career, was not retained by KKR ahead of the mega auction.

He has represented sides like the Mumbai Indians and Royal Challengers Bangalore in the past but has never been a part of his hometown franchise - Chennai Super Kings.

DK has set a base price of INR 2 crores for himself and when asked about the franchise that he wants to represent in the upcoming season, the Tamil Nadu cricketer admitted that he would love to play for CSK.

"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 PTI in an exclusive interview.

"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," he added.

Karthik has not played for India since the 2019 World Cup semi-final but the veteran stumper hasn't lost hope for a comeback.

Age might not be on his side but DK believes that it's no longer a factor, especially in the shorter formats, citing examples of the likes of Shikhar Dhawan, Mohammad Hafeez and Shoaib Malik.

"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." Karthik replied. 

"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," the out-of-favour Indian wicketkeeper-batsman commented.

"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." signed off Karthik.

Speaking of his IPL numbers, Karthik has featured in 213 games, scoring 4046 runs with the help of nineteen 50+ scores.