Virat Kohli and Dinesh Karthik after RCB’s IPL 2024 season ended against Rajasthan Royals at the Narendra Modi Stadium. (PTI Photo)
Virat Kohli has praised his Royal Challengers Bengaluru teammate Dinesh Karthik for helping him out in tough times in the 2022 season of the Indian Premier League. Kartik’s retirement was officially confirmed by the RCB in a post on Friday afternoon.
RCB posted two clips on Friday. In the first one RCB staff and players, besides Kartik’s wife Dipika Pallikal Karthik, are offering up anecdotes from his career. In the second clip, where fans are praising Kartik, the franchise officially confirmed that Kartik’s IPL stint was over.
In the first video, Kohli gushed about Karthik, who he called a ‘wise man’.
“Off the field, I have had some really nice and interesting conversations with Karthik. He is wise man, has great knowledge about a lot of things, not just cricket. I have thoroughly enjoyed my conversations with him. 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 had three ducks to his name and scored only 341 runs from 16 matches with two half-centuries and a strike-rate of 115.98.
Royal Challengers Bengaluru batter Dinesh Karthik plays a shot during the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 cricket match between Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Chennai Super Kings, at M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru, Saturday, May 18, 2024. (PTI Photo)
“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 added.
Karthik ended IPL 2024 with 326 runs from 15 games at an average of 36.22 with 2 half-centuries and a top score of 83.
‘DK is the backbone of RCB!’
‘We need more of DK.’
‘DK is the real boss.’
Fans express their sentiments and emotions for DK as the curtain falls on his IPL career. ❤🩹🥺#PlayBold #ನಮ್ಮRCB #WeLoveYouDK pic.twitter.com/UFufEJZSSS
— Royal Challengers Bengaluru (@RCBTweets) May 24, 2024
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Kohli recalled his first impressions of Karthik when the duo first played together for India in the 2009 Champions Trophy on South African soil.
“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 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,” Kohli said.
“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.”
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