There are some cricketers who have immense talent but are never able to make it big at international level. For many, it is not being able to perform at top level, but there are others who were the target of sheer bad luck. How so? They may have gotten injured or ended up peaking in the wrong era. In the best example of the latter situation, Murali Kartik springs to mind.
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No dearth of talent there. Kartik was left-arm orthodox and certainly added that extra variation to Team India’s attack. But the problem was that when he did burst onto the international scene, India already had the services of 2 frontline spinners. Yes, we are talking of Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh. In an age when India were looking to strengthen their pace bowling and use the 3-pacer 1-spinner combo, it was virtually impossible to play 2, let alone 3 spinners. For sheer consistency and experience, Kartik lose out to the other two.
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But he did have limited success and when he got the chance he took it. Be it his Man of the Match performance vs Australia in the epic 2004 Test when India bundled them out for 93 in the 4th innings or taking 6 wickets in an ODI vs the World Champions in 2007, Kartik was a fighter and team man to the core.
Between 2000 and 2007, he played 46 international games for India. He remains a talent to this day that India failed to utilise because he peaked in the wrong era.
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Kartik slowly faded away as he was no longer considered post-2007. A committed player who did not get his due, the man always did his job with a smile. He can be added to that list of players who promised a lot, but never got the opportunity to reach their full potential.