India, July 8 -- Dinesh Karthik and comebacks go back a long way. He is one of those rare Indian cricketers who has staged multiple comebacks at different stages of his career. It was never say never for the wicketkeeper-batter. While most of his comebacks were largely successful, his return to Test cricket after eight years in 2018 was not. On the back of his stunning white-ball returns and a consistent run with the bat for Tamil Nadu in domestic cricket, Karthik forced his way back into the Test side as regular stumper Wriddhiman Saha got injured.

He played three Test matches -- one against Afghanistan at home and two in England -- and scored just 25 runs in five innings, including two ducks. After four failures in Birmingham and at Lo...