Former India wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik has apologised to cricket fans after he faced backlash online for ignoring ex-captain MS Dhoni in his best all-format India XI.

On CricbuzzKarthik had picked India’s best all-format XI last week. However, he did not include Dhoni, who has been one of the greats of the game across the three formats.

Karthik omitting Dhoni from his XI did not go down well with Dhoni’s fans. They started attacking him online for the “blunder”. And, now he has apologised for his “big mistake”.

“Bhai log bada galti ho gaya (Brothers, I made a big mistake). Genuinely, it was a mistake. I realised it only when the episode came out. There were so many things happening that when I put this 11, I actually forgot the keeper. Luckily, Rahul Dravid was there, so everybody thought I put in a part-time wicketkeeper. But genuinely, I didn’t think of Rahul Dravid as a keeper,” he said in the latest episode of ‘HeyCB with DK’.

“Can you believe it? Being a wicketkeeper, I forgot to add a wicketkeeper. It is a blunder. Itna bada (Such a big) mistake I couldn’t have made. And for me, let’s make it very, very clear. Thala Dhoni is a lock-in in any format that I put. Not only in India, I believe he is one of the greatest cricketers ever to have played this sport. I genuinely believe that,” he added.

He said he would put Dhoni at No. 7 and will be the captain. “That team, if I had to do it again, that is the one change I will do. Thala Dhoni in at number 7, and he will be the captain of any Indian team that is there. No doubt about it.”

Dinesh Karthik’s best all-format India XI (picked last week)

1. Rohit Sharma, 2. Virender Sehwag, 3. Rahul Dravid, 4. Sachin Tendulkar, 5. Virat Kohli, 6. Yuvraj Singh, 7. Ravindra Jadeja, 8. Ravichandran Ashwin, 9. Anil Kumble, 10. Jasprit Bumrah, 11. Zaheer Khan, 12th man: Harbhajan Singh.

Note: Karthik later added Dhoni at No. 7 and made him captain.