After Kartik Sharma raised his half-century against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) with a cracking six over extra-cover off Mohammed Shami, he had the usually stoic Stephen Fleming applauding heartily in the dugout. Kartik’s good friend, Prashant Veer, who was also bought for INR 14.2 crore at the mini-auction, was up on his feet.Even before Kartik had scored 71 off 42 balls on a tricky pitch in Lucknow, Chennai Super Kings (CSK) batting coach Michael Hussey had earmarked him as a “five-ten-year” player for the franchise. On Friday, Kartik, who turned 20 last month, showed why he is rated highly.
On an unusual IPL surface where the ball climbed steeply off a good length or hard length, Kartik displayed his middle-order gears and range. He had started slowly – he was on 24 off 21 balls at one point – but almost tripled that tally off his next 21 balls.
Kartik entered the IPL with considerable reputation as a spin-hitter. He had taken down Shreyas Gopal and R Sai Kishore during the domestic season and his sixes against spin during CSK’s pre-season camp in Chennai had gone viral on social media. In Lucknow, he played to his strengths and dominated the left-arm fingerspin of Shahbaz Ahmad. His back-foot swat off a quick dart that was only fractionally short had shades of Ambati Rayudu in it. He also cut it against the extreme pace of Mayank Yadav, backing away and carving him over cover-point for four.
Three years after Rayudu’s retirement, CSK seem to have found their No. 4. During the period, CSK cycled through 12 players for that position, with Shivam Dube being their most prolific one with 385 runs in 13 innings at a strike rate of 174.20. Ravindra Jadeja is second on the list with 250 runs in eight innings at a strike rate of 136.61.
CSK are now seeing Dube as their finisher, a role that he performs for India as well, while Jadeja is now a Rajasthan Royals man.
In only four innings at No. 4, Kartik slots in behind Dube and Jadeja for CSK with 186 runs at a strike rate of 139.84.
Kartik is fluent on both sides of the wicket and has an incredibly wide range of shots, especially for an IPL rookie. According to ESPNcricinfo’s logs, Kartik has played 18 different shots this season, including the scoop and the ramp. He tends to mess with the lines and lengths of bowlers by using the crease or leaving it. These are all traits of a middle-order batter with a high ceiling.
The start to the IPL, however, was low-key for Kartik: he batted at three different positions between Nos. 5 and 7 in his first few games, scoring 58 runs in five innings at an average of 11.60 and strike rate of 118.36. Perhaps, he was weighed down by price-tag pressure. Or perhaps, he needed some time to get rid of the ring rust after he had suffered an injury during the domestic season.
“He’s learning on the job, poor guy – he has batted No. 6 and No. 7 for the first part of the IPL. It’s not an easy number. But since he has come at No. 4 or No. 5, he has been batting exceptionally well”
Ambati Rayudu on ESPNcricinfo’s TimeOut
A move up to No. 4 has unlocked his potential since. Nikhil Doru, the former Rajasthan wicketkeeper-batter who is now Kartik’s batting coach in domestic cricket, reckons that his game is better suited to shaping an innings rather than finishing it.
“Yes, Kartik didn’t start the IPL well, but I was confident he will score runs if he bats higher,” Doru told ESPNcricinfo. “Because he has good game sense and knows when to hit or when to defend or when to take singles. He had the pressure of 14 crores, but from what I have seen of Kartik from childhood, he’s very calm and composed. He doesn’t talk much and deals with pressure well.”
Doru spotted Kartik when he was playing Under-14 cricket for Rajasthan and was immediately impressed with his temperament and array of strokes. “I first saw Kartik when he was around 13 in the Challenger Trophy for Rajasthan,” Doru recalled. “He was also the highest run-getter in that tournament and I told him he has the game to play Ranji Trophy and higher-level cricket. Others were also doing well at that level, but Kartik was exceptional because of his stroke play.”
While Kartik is only 38 games old in senior cricket, he is developing as an all-format batter. CSK have always valued such versatile batters though most other franchises are now leaning more towards out-and-out T20 bashers. In a Ranji Trophy game in Jaipur in November last year, Kartik scored 139 off 192 balls and played out nearly 60 overs along with Deepak Hooda against a Mumbai attack that included Shardul Thakur, Tushar Deshpande, Shams Mulani and R Ashwin clone Himanshu Singh.
“That hundred against Mumbai. That, for me, was an exceptional innings and even in that innings he had a high strike rate [72.39],” Doru said. “Scoring runs against Mumbai is always very good.”
Could Kartik Sharma be the next Ambati Rayudu?•BCCI
The step up to the IPL, though, hadn’t been smooth and Kartik still has a few issues to remedy. For instance, his dot-ball percentage of 39.41 is the third highest among middle-order batters (Nos. 4 to 7; min. 100 balls faced). If he learns to find the gaps more than the fielders, he could turn more potent.
“His batsmanship will improve over time with confidence, with experience,” Rayudu said of Kartik on ESPNcricinfo’s TimeOut show. “He will know his single options or double options on a certain pitch. Once he starts getting into those nitty-gritties, I feel the strike rate also will improve.
“I just think his progress has been pretty rapid and he’s looking good. He is a fast learner. He’s learning on the job, poor guy – he has batted No. 6 and No. 7 for the first part of the IPL. It’s not an easy number. But since he has come at No. 4 or No. 5, he has been batting exceptionally well.”
While CSK’s path to the playoffs is uncertain this season, Kartik has exuded a sense of certainty at No. 4 and could well be the young batter around whom CSK build their middle order for the future.
Deivarayan Muthu is a senior sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo
