Eight years after he made his Test debut against South Africa, Murali Kartik has played just eight Tests and 37 one-dayers. The left-arm spinner’s international career has been a tale of what might have been had the selectors had shown consistent faith in his abilities. A succession of weird selectorial calls and untimely injuries have prevented the 31-year-old from doing justice to his immense talent; to his credit, each time he has been called up, Kartik has responded in spectacular fashion.

The left ankle injury sustained a little after he was picked in the squad for the first two Tests against South Africa on Monday was as devastating as being left out of the tri-series team that triumphed in Australia earlier this month. Typically, as he told Deccan Herald, Kartik has taken this latest setback too in his stride. Excerpts:

How do you cope with an injury as untimely as this?

The first couple of days, I will keep wondering why this had to happen to me now. But at the end of the day, I have to tell myself that something serious could have happened that could have kept me out of the game for a lot longer -- it could have been bigger and it is not. There are different ways of looking at it. But as someone who has had a funny international career, I didn’t want it.

The ‘funny’ career, does it help you deal with such setbacks better?

Yes, that’s true. I can probably take it much better. Except the odd game here and there, I have managed to bowl well almost every time I have played for India. Even so, I have forever been in and out of the side. I have never been able to understand why. The most recent instance was the Australia one-day series. I have always been very confident and optimistic because people have rated me as one of the three best spinners in the country right now. This time, I was supremely confident that I was flying to Melbourne. But there is many a slip between the cup and the lip!

You came back dramatically into the one-day side against Australia in October, and were omitted equally sensationally from the tri-series squad...

I have always pinned my hopes on playing for India. That’s the main reason why I play non-stop cricket. As soon as the domestic season is over here, I pack my bags and go and play County cricket in the hope that somebody takes note of what I am doing. When I went out of the team during the Pakistan one-day series (in February 2006), it was due to a shoulder injury. I was told that I would be back soon, for the Champions Trophy. That didn’t happen.

For the first time in more than 10 years, I was not picked for the Irani Cup game when I came back from England last season. That summed up the entire situation. But every time I have played, I have had the confidence that I will come back. That’s probably why I have managed so many comebacks. I have kept up that intensity throughout my life because for me, till the time I hang up my boots, the only burning desire is to play for the country. There is nothing bigger than that. Playing for India gives me the biggest high. Once you know you can do well at the highest level, you don’t want to play any other level. As an international sportsman, that’s all you want to do -- play for the country.

But it’s a circle, isn’t it?

The only place where you can prove your mettle when you are dropped from the Indian team is playing County or domestic cricket because nobody is going to pick me if I am sitting at home! There are a few players about whom everybody will talk when they are injured or dropped, and there is the next set of players who are playing with them at the same level but they will never get talked about in the same way when it comes to injuries and performances. I don’t know how the forces work.

I am somebody who can take the good with the bad. As long as I am performing, I should be there. If I am not performing, drop me. But having performed and being dropped, I can’t understand that. From my side, I always try and keep doing things which I need to do to make my game better. That’s why I have done well on whatever soil I have bowled.

But to do well at the international level, you need to play consistently. Sometimes, I am amazed at how things have turned out. When I come back, I do well. I feel if I can do well in this scenario, I can do better if I play consistently because I will feel wanted. I know I can go the extra yard if I was playing consistently.

Your first reaction when the tri-series squad was announced?

I am still in shock, even though the tour is over! There was a sense of deja vu. I was man of the match against Australia (in the Mumbai Test in 2004), and after one more Test, I was dropped. The next time I was man of the match against Australia was also in Mumbai (last October) and I had a very good series against Pakistan after that. To not find myself for a third successive one-day series, it was tough. But I have learnt to take it with my chin up. I have started taking it much better but it still takes me a while to get used to it. This was a bigger shock than anything else.

Does it mean there is no bitterness?

There’s only a certain extent to which you can control things. If you realise that nothing will change, probably you have to change. There is a part of me which is bitter, I can’t deny that, about the entire thing, but you have to stay strong, that’s very important.

And where do you get the strength from each time you come back, and come back impressively?

My strength is just the belief that I can do well. That is the only message I give to any young spinner when I speak to them. If you let go of your own self-belief, no one can help you. I have been rated very highly in Australia and England, in other countries and by many people in India. So probably I am good. I have to keep that thinking going till the day I stop playing.