Dinesh Karthik

Dinesh Karthik married his childhood friend Nikita Vanjara on May 02, 2007 in a low-key private ceremony in Mumbai. The marriage broke apart in 2012 allegedly because of Nikita's affair with Indian cricketer Murali Vijay.

His second marriage to Indian squash player Dipika Pallikal was on August 18, 2015 in Chennai. The two first met back in 2008 at the Chennai marathon, but became romantically involved after they met again in 2013 at Mr. Shankar Basu’s Maverick gym.

Dinesh Karthik was born on June 1, 1985 in Chennai, Tamil Nadu to Krishna Kumar, a first-division cricketer from Chennai, and his wife Padma. He has a younger brother named Vinesh.

He spent a couple years of his childhood in Kuwait where his father worked and attended Fahaheel Al-Watanieh Indian Private School, under Delhi Public School. At the age of ten, he got his first cricket lessons from his father, who had to leave cricket for a stable job and did not want his son to suffer the same fate.

Dinesh Karthik trained with his father since a very early age. He steered through the youth ranks very quickly, and debuted for Tamil Nadu Under-14s in early 1999 and was promoted to the Under-16 team in November that year.

He was selected for the Under-19 team at the age of 15 years and 3 months, but later lost the position due to poor performance. He regained his place in the U-19 team the following season and was subsequently promoted to the Under-22 team, making a strong case for his selection to the senior team in the 2002–03 season.

He debuted at first-class level as wicket-keeping batsman for Tamil Nadu in late-2002 against Baroda and in the whole season, he scored 179 runs in five matches, including an undefeated 88 to help the team avoid certain loss. While he was overlooked for Duleep Trophy due to dip in form, he bagged a spot in the national Under-19 team with three fifties in his second zonal season.

He improved his wicket-keeping skills by training under Kiran More, former national wicket-keeper batsman and chairman of the selection committee. During the 2003–04 Ranji season, he scored 438 runs with two centuries and 20 catches.

He secured a berth in Indian team for the 2004 U-19 World Cup, which was held in Bangladesh. The Indian U-19 team reached the semifinals of the tournament.

Dinesh Karthik made his ODI debut in the NatWest series against England on September 5, 2004, and went on to play in one match against Kenya in the 2004 ICC Champions Trophy. He subsequently made his Test debut in the 4th Test against Australia on November 3, 2004, replacing out-of-form Parthiv Patel.

He next played in the two-match home series against South Africa, also in November 2004, but had only one decent 46-run innings in the second Test. The next month, he accompanied the Test team to Bangladesh for a two match series, but failed to contribute to India’s massive 500-plus scores in both matches.

The selection of M.S. Dhoni as a wicket-keeper batsman in the ODI team limited Karthik’s opportunities till April 2006, but he was retained for the home Test series against Pakistan in March 2005. He again failed to perform with the bat in high-scoring matches, except for 93 runs in the second innings of the second Test to put up a 166-run partnership with Rahul Dravid.

After scoring just one run in each match against Zimbabwe in September 2005, he was replaced by Dhoni who had a prolific career sofar. After Dhoni suffered a finger injury, he was called back for the Third Test against South Africa in January 2007 and made a hundred-run opening partnership with Wasim Jaffer, contributing 63 runs.

Prior to the Test series, he failed to perform in the ODIs, but made an unbeaten 31 in the T20 to steer India to victory against South Africa.