From rented nets to MS Dhoni's dressing room: Kartik Sharma's small-town, big price IPL story

Kartik Sharma's IPL success is a culmination of a decade-long family effort, overcoming financial struggles and injuries. =

Kartik Sharma’s INR 14.20 crore IPL moment looks like a lightning strike to the fans. In reality, it is more of a family’s decade-long wager, funded by debt, sacrifice, and a stubborn refusal to let one injury end two careers.

Kartik Sharma, CSK's new wicketkeeper buy.(HT_PRINT)

For Chennai Super Kings, he is a young wicketkeeper-batter with upside. For him and his family, Sharma is proof that small-town grind can survive bad luck, broken equipment, and the kind of pressure that quietly breaks most dreams.

A father’s unfinished dream, rebuilt through his son

The emotional center of Kartik’s story is his father, Manoj Sharma. Kartik grew up watching a man who had once chased cricket seriously, only for an injury to shut the door. What followed was a decision: if the father couldn’t finish his own innings, he would build the conditions for his son to start.

Those conditions cost money the family didn’t really have. Over the years, the household is reported to have run on tight margins, family savings stretched, jewelry sold, loans taken, and side work picked up whenever needed. The most striking detail is how training was treated like infrastructure: a plot was bought and later sold so a bowling machine and practice nets could be arranged, turning preparation into something close to a home-made academy.

Then came the kind of setback that rarely makes it through. Accounts from his early days describe jealousy driven sabotage: equipment stolen, nets damaged or set on fire. The response wasn’t theatrics. The family pivoted, finding safer, structured environments and placing Kartik into former coaching.

The pathway took him through academies and under the guidance of Lokendra Singh Chahar, a coach Kartik has credited for constant support. Along the way, Kartik is also reported to have contributed financially, taking up tuition teaching to cover day-to-day cricket expenses.

What makes the IPL cheque feel even heavier is timing. Kartik has dealt with injury concerns too, including a finger issue that required medical attention, meaning the leap into the biggest league also arrives with the responsibility of staying fit, adapting fast and justifying a price that will follow him everywhere.

Now, the numbers are real: a life-changing contract, and a dressing room where expectations are as high as the applause. The human story underneath is simpler; one family kept pursuing the dream through hard times before it finally paid back.