Even though Dinesh Karthik has not officially announced his retirement from cricket, all signs suggest that we have seen the last of DK on a cricket field. After emotional post-match scenes following RCB’s loss to RR in the IPL 204 Eliminator in Ahmedabad on Wednesday, the team’s social media handle posted a touching tribute video for their finisher. In many ways, the video signals that DK will hang up his boots.
The video features Virat Kohli, India and RCB’s strength and conditioning coach Shankar Basu, former India’s top-ranked Squash player and DK’s wife Dipika Pallikal Karthik, Abhishek Nayyar, and DK’s Tamil Nadu teammate and fielding coach Malolan Rangarajan—all reminiscing about DK, his hardships, and his never-say-die attitude, revealing various facets of DK’s life.
How Dinesh Karthik’s ‘Honest Explanation’ Helped a Struggling Virat Kohli in 2022
Rangarajan unearthed one such facet by discussing DK’s need for perceived pressure in his life to do well.
“What we’ve realized with DK is that he needs perceived pressure in his life to do well,” said Rangarajan, adding, “What happens is we are in Chennai, and we’re going to be playing, I think, Madhya Pradesh. I think in his previous seven innings he’s not scored a run. [He] calls me on the third day morning before we go to the ground and says, ‘I’m done. I’m going to retire in 2014. This is my last inning. If I don’t score this game, I’m retiring.’
And what he does [is he] puts that perceived pressure on himself. [He] goes in and scores on a very, very tough pitch, turning a bit. Scores of 150 or 140,” remembered the former TN spinner.
Hasta La Vista, DK: Dinesh Karthik Set to Retire
The early 2010s was a challenging phase for Karthik both on the personal and professional front, and his long-time friend Abhishek Nayar touched upon how lost DK was at that time. “I think there were a lot of things going on with DK at that point, personally and professionally. Also, the fact that, you know, he felt he was at the lowest point in his career. I feel at that point he just felt that he didn’t know where to go from there,” said Abhishek.
Karthik, a former India 19 skipper, had a stop-gap career. Despite debuting in 2004 both in Tests and ODIs, his career coincided with a certain MS Dhoni, limiting his Test and ODI appearances to 16 and 94, respectively. Karthik played 60 T20Is for India, and his personal crowning glory was the last-ball six against Bangladesh to win the Nidahas Trophy in Sri Lanka in 2018.
Not a Guard of Honour, But Dinesh Karthik Leads RCB Team Out of the Field in Possible Farewell
In the IPL, DK was a journeyman playing for six franchises in 17 years. His best year was 2015, in which he scored 510 runs batting at the top of the order for Mumbai Indians. Late in his career, he transformed himself into a finisher and even earned a spot in the Indian squad for the 2022 T20 World Cup.
Talking more about what keeps DK ticking, Rangarajan revealed the extent of DK’s energy and enthusiasm for the game.
“What everybody is seeing now is a very, very subtle version. People need to understand that his situation, especially in the last four or five years, is high-intensity. So it’s very difficult to just be sat on your seat, put your helmet on. Very few people in the world can do that. So he gets himself, gets his heart rate up and going, runs like a maniac, up and down maybe 25, 30,000 times, and does about 200,000 push-ups before he goes in.
“I think he’s faced the most number of balls in training in the history of cricket off the field,” added the 35-year-old.
Stay updated with the latest from IPL 2024 , including updated list of Orange Cap In IPL 2024 and Purple Cap. Explore IPL Match Today . Check IPL 2024 Points Table and players with the Most Sixes , Most Fours ,Most Fifties And Most Hundreds In IPL 2024. Stay updated with the latest news on the upcoming T20 World Cup 2024.
Comments
0 comment