Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s spirited IPL 2024 campaign ended in the Eliminator against Rajasthan Royals, and with that the curtains on veteran wicketkeeper-batter Dinesh Karthik’s illustrated IPL career also came down. Kartik’s retirement was officially confirmed by the RCB in a post on Friday afternoon.
Star batter Virat Kohli led the franchise to sing praises of the 38-year-old stumper, who the Delhi batter credited for helping him out in tough times during the 2022 IPL season. In a video shared by the franchise, Kohli gushed about Karthik, terming him a ‘wise man’.
“Off the field, I have had some really nice and interesting conversations with Karthik. He is a wise man, has great knowledge about a lot of things, not just cricket. I have thoroughly enjoyed my conversations with him,” Kohli said.
“Even in that phase in 2022 when I did not have a great IPL season, I was really struggling for confidence, Karthik sat me down a couple of times and gave me a very honest explanation of how he is seeing things and maybe I am not able to see them myself,” Kohli recalled.
Back in that season, Kohli endured three ducks to his name and managed to score just 341 runs from 16 matches with two half-centuries and a strike-rate of 115.98.
“So, I just like his honesty and courage to go and speak to anyone about things that he feels dearly about. And that I think is the most special thing for me when it comes to Karthik and that’s one thing I have always cherished about him. That’s why we get along really really well,” Kohli said.
Karthik ended IPL 2024 with 326 runs from 15 games at an average of 36.22 with two half-centuries and a top score of 83.
Recalling his first impressions of Karthik when the duo first played together for India in the 2009 Champions Trophy on South African soil, Kohli said, “The first time I met DK, I remember we were playing in South Africa if I am not wrong in the Champions Trophy 2009. It was the first time I shared the change-room with Dinesh and I found him to be a very amusing, I would say hyper-active, confused person, most of the times he was moving all over the place, never stopping. That was my first impression of Dinesh.”
“Outstanding talent, brilliant batter to watch and my first impression and present day impression are not far apart. Just that he has become wiser and calmed down a lot,” the 35-year-old added.