Murali Kartik (, born 11 September 1976) is an Indian cricket commentator and former cricketer who sporadically represented the national team from 2000 to 2007. He was a slow left-arm orthodox bowler. He was not selected for international matches during his prime years due to the presence of Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh in the Indian squad.

After starting out in the Delhi junior system, Murali moved through the age group ranks at Railways and was selected for the Indian Under-19 team. He made his first-class debut in 1996–97 and after a few productive seasons at the domestic level, made his Test debut in early 2000 as Kumble's bowling partner. However, he ran into disciplinary problems and was expelled from the National Cricket Academy in the same year. At the same time, new national captain Sourav Ganguly was reluctant to entrust him with responsibility. Ganguly called for off-spinner Harbhajan Singh to be recalled in 2001 and was rewarded with a series-winning performance against Australia. This entrenched the off-spinner in the team and left Kartik on the outer.

For the next four years, Kartik was on the fringes of selection. He made his ODI debut in 2002. However a series of disappointing performances lead to him missing the 2003 Cricket World Cup. He was recalled in late 2003 for limited overs matches and played in approximately half of India's matches over six months, as well as one Test after Harbhajan suffered a serious injury. In late 2004, Kartik played in three Tests as India fielded three spinners and claimed his only man-of-the-match award in Tests against Australia in Mumbai, but was again dropped two matches later. In late 2005, Murali became a regular member of the ODI team for a few months when the International Cricket Council introduced an experimental rule that allowed one substitute to be used, opening an extra vacancy in the national team. However, Kartik was unable to secure his position in the team and the rule was later revoked. In late 2007, Kartik broke back into the ODI team and took 6/27 in one victory over Australia, but lost form soon after and was again dropped. He has not represented India since then.

Aside from domestic cricket, Kartik played for Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Indian Premier League and has been in demand in English county cricket as an overseas player, representing Lancashire, Middlesex, Somerset and Surrey.

Kartik has been part of the IPL commentary team since 2015 and regularly commentates on the Indian national team's home games.

Early life

Born on 11 September 1976 in Madras, Tamil Nadu,

Kartik started out in the junior system at Delhi. He broke into their Under-16 team in December 1992 and took a match total of 10/74 on debut against Himachal Pradesh, and scored 52 not out in an innings victory. He took 2/91 in the next match against Haryana but could no longer play in the Under-16s because of his advancing age.

In five matches for his new team during 1994–95, he took 24 wickets at an average of 14.58, including a five-wicket haul (5/28) against Vidarbha. He was rewarded for his performance with a selection into the Under-19 Central Zone team for the zonal one-day tournament, taking five wickets at an average of 25.00 in four matches. He had little success with the bat, scoring 47 on one occasion during the season, but otherwise only aggregating nine runs in six innings. He ended the season with 16 wickets at 19.37 and 185 runs at 20.55, including a 74 against Bengal. Still, he was overlooked for the Central Zone selection for the Duleep Trophy after taking only six wickets in his last four matches for the season. In four one-day matches for Railways, Kartik took seven wickets at 12.42, including a match-winning 4/13 against Rajasthan. but was dropped in the later stages of the tournament. After taking a match total of 7/74 in helping to orchestrate an innings victory over Rajasthan in his third match of the season, Kartik went wicketless in the next match against Madhya Pradesh and was dropped. He scored 70 runs at 23.33 during the tournament. This included a 3/8 and 4/62 in an innings win over Rajasthan and 5/84 and 5/55 in the last two matches of the campaign against Tamil Nadu and Delhi. He also added 29 and 53 with the bat against Tamil Nadu to help stave off a defeat after they were trailing by over 200 in the first innings. and was the leading wicket-taker during the tournament. He scored a total of 183 runs at 18.30 for the entire Indian first-class season. He then went on an India A tour to the West Indies, so his only other first-class match was a Ranji Trophy encounter against Rajasthan, in which he took 4/53.

Kartik was selected in 2000 for the first intake of the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore, after earlier having made his Test debut in early 2000 in a home series against South Africa. However, his stay was cut short along with that of Harbhajan, when they were expelled by the director Hanumant Singh over disciplinary issues.

In the 2000–01 season, Kartik started in fine form as he set out to maintain a Test position. In the Irani Trophy, the traditional season opener between the reigning Ranji champions—Mumbai—and the Rest of India, Kartik orchestrated the defeat of the title-holders. After taking 4/73 in Mumbai's 260, Kartik scored 22 in Rest of India's total of 389. He then took 9/70 to cut down Mumbai for 184, and his batting colleagues accumulated the 55 needed for victory without loss. Kartik was dropped from the team after the first Test against Zimbabwe. In the one-day domestic circuit, Kartik took nine wickets at 25.22 at an economy rate of 4.02, giving himself a chance for a Test recall in the Duleep Trophy. The selectors were unsatisfied with these performances, and despite a shoulder injury to Kumble, Kartik was overlooked as India hosted Australia in the 2001 Border–Gavaskar Trophy. taking 5/51 and 3/7 and scoring 69 in his final match of the season to secure a win over Baroda. Kartik made his first overseas appearance for India, replacing the injured Harbhajan midway through the 2003–04 tour of Australia. He had little success in his first tour match, taking 1/64 and 1/53 against Australia A. He played in the final Test at the Sydney Cricket Ground when India fielded two spinners for the only time in the series. He was punished by the Australian batsmen, taking a total of 1/211 from 45 overs, a run rate of 4.68 in a high-scoring draw.

Kartik started the 2004–05 season by scoring 56 and 16 and taking 2/42 and 2/49 as Rest of India defeated Mumbai in the Irani Trophy, but it was not enough to prevent Harbhajan from resuming his position in the team for the home Test series against Australia. He got an opportunity in the Third Test in Nagpur, when Harbhajan was ill, taking 3/57 and 2/74 as India lost by 342 runs to lose their first home series to Australia since 1969–70. Kartik held his place when Harbhajan returned for the final Test in Mumbai as India fielded three spinners, and took 4/44 and 3/32 in a man of the match performance which saw India win by 13 runs. Both of these performances occurred under the captaincy of Rahul Dravid with Ganguly injured, in which Kartik netted his wickets at an average of 17.50 compared to 51.08 under Ganguly's leadership. Kartik played the last of his eight Tests in a subsequent opening match against South Africa in Kanpur, taking a total of 2/93 under Ganguly's command, only to be dropped after India chose to only use two spinners in the subsequent matches. taking 2/28 and scoring a duck in a 15-run defeat. He made his debut as the county club's 700th first-class cricketer against Somerset at Taunton in April 2007. He took 51 wickets at 24.96 in 12 matches and agreed to sign on for a further season in 2008. A highlight of Kartik's stint was a haul of 6/21 and 3/52 that helped set up an innings win over Glamorgan, and 6/85 and 3/83 that secured a 38-run win over Leicestershire. A third five-wicket haul, 5/38 against Derbyshire, was not enough to prevent a 15-run defeat. He played his first ODI in 18 months when he returned for the fourth match at Mohali. He took 1/48,

Kartik took only one wicket in the next two matches, which Australia won. Kartik then made his T20 international debut, taking 0/27 from four overs in an Indian win over Australia.

Due to his international commitments, Kartik made only sporadic appearances during the Indian domestic scene in 2007–08. He took nine wickets at 44.22 and scored 77 runs at 19.25 in three first-class fixtures. After being dropped from India's limited-overs team, Kartik continued his strong one-day form at domestic level, taking six wickets at 25.33 at an economy rate of only 3.16 in six matches. He played in six matches, taking three wickets at 42.33, but was dropped because his economy rate was beyond eight runs an over. All of these came in one match in which he took 3/17.

thumb|Kartik playing an unorthodox shot for [[Somerset County Cricket Club|Somerset in 2010.]]Kartik was part of the Middlesex team that won the 2008 Twenty20 Cup in England, their first domestic title for 15 years. He played in 11 matches and took 14 wickets at 20.14 at an economy rate of 6.71, claiming at least one wicket in all but one of the matches.

During the 2009–10 Indian season, Kartik played in seven matches for Railways in the Ranji Trophy, taking 17 wickets at 25.05 including a best of 5/81 against Mumbai. He also scored 44 against the team and ended with 97 runs at 12.12 for the season. However his figures were not enough to gain selection for Central Zone in the Duleep Trophy.

As of 2020, he is currently a cricket commentator, working on Star Sports coverage of India home games and the Indian Premier League.

References

  • Unlucky Cricketer at cricketandcricketer.com