Left-arm spinner in the classical mould, Murali Kartik has long been on the fringes of the national team. He has a high-arm action straight from the coaching manual, and possesses all the weapons in his armoury - the tantalising loop, the ability to extract sharp turn and bounce, and the subtle variations.
But he hasn't always had the breaks, and has regularly played the understudy to Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh. Kartik forced his way into the Indian team in 1999-2000 after impressive performances in the domestic games, but didn't seem to enjoy his captain's confidence and was either used as a defensive option or underbowled.
He made his mark as a one-day bowler against West Indies in 2002-03, consistently keeping the batsmen in check on pitches where every other bowler got tonked for plenty. However, his best moment clearly came at Mumbai, against Australia in 2004-05. Enjoying the confidence reposed in him by Rahul Dravid, the captain, Kartik ran through the Australian batting on a dustbowl, taking seven wickets in the match to bowl India to a famous win.