Dinesh Karthik has said he is happy to accept any role in the batting order that is assigned to him by captain Virat Kohli and coach Ravi Shastri.
The wicketkeeper-batsman, who has made a comeback into the ODI team, after missing the Sri Lankan and Australian series, was preferred over Karnataka youngster Manish Pandey for the middle order role during India's six-wicket loss to New Zealand in the first of the three-match ODI series on Sunday, October 22 in Mumbai.
The two centuries he hit during the recently-concluded Duleep Trophy tournament helped him even replace Test specialist KL Rahul, who had been under-par during India's tour of Sri Lanka earlier this year, in the 15-member ODI squad.
Also read: Why is MS Dhoni crucial for Virat Kohli's Team India? Sourav Ganguly explains
On Sunday, Karthik joined skipper Kohli at a crucial juncture after India had lost their top-order inside the first 16 overs. The two batsmen stitched a 73-run stand for the fourth wicket and just when they were looking to shift gears, the Tamil Nadu batsman gifted his wicket away when he was on 37.
Karthik said he was disappointed with himself for not carrying on, but that he was happy for having been involved in a crucial stand with Kohli in his comeback match.
"I don't want to say I am comfortable with any particular position - number four or five. Whatever opportunity the coach and captain gives me, I will look to make use of it and contribute," Karthik, who batted at number five, said at the post-match press conference on Sunday.
He added: "I should keep concentrating on things I should be doing rather than thinking what will happen if I bat at four or five. I think I want to take a little energy away from that and focus on what I need to do when I go into bat.
"A player like me should have batted a little longer. That's something I am disappointed with. If I had batted longer, we could have ended up with 15-20 runs more. I got out at a critical juncture of the innings. But, it was a decent start. Good to have had a solid partnership with Virat Kohli."
Karthik also revealed Kohli and himself had thought 250 would be a good total on what was a tricky wicket with inconsistent bounce. Despite posting 280 on the board, India ended up on the losing side as Tom Latham and Ross Taylor added 200 runs together for the fourth wicket and helped them clinch a 1-0 lead.
"It wasn't that easy to score runs. We [Kohli and I] weren't able to time the ball. When we were batting, we thought 250 is probably a great score. The wicket was sticky and turning a bit, but it got better in the second half and credit to New Zealand for making full use of it," Karthik said.
The second India-New Zealand ODI is in Pune on Wednesday (October 25).
