Dinesh Karthik has called time on his playing career. The wicketkeeper-batsman last played for India in the 2022 T20 World Cup and put his hand up for the 2024 edition as well, but will now focus his efforts elsewhere. Karthik announced his decision on Saturday, his 39th birthday, ending a career that began in 2002-03.
For the past few years, however, Karthik has been playing only domestic cricket and the IPL circuit, where he has been playing since the first season in 2008. He signed after Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s (RCB) qualifier against Rajasthan Royals (RR. ) in Ahmedabad earlier this month. He was 11 of 13 and picked up a catch and a sack.
ESPNcricinfo had reported before the start of IPL 2024 that it would be Karthik’s last IPL season, so an announcement was on the cards. He will leave the tournament as one of the seven players to have featured in the entire IPL so far, along with MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Wriddhiman Saha and Manish Pandey.
In what is an impressive statistic, Karthik has missed only two matches in his 17 seasons. The first was in his first season, when he was part of Delhi Daredevils (now Capitals), and the second was in IPL 2023 when Karthik sat out a league match against Sunrisers Hyderabad while he was part of RCB.
The recent stint with RCB was Karthik’s second in the team, after playing one season with them in 2015. He was their fourth highest scorer with 326 in 13 innings with a strike rate of 187. showed signs of evolution even though it was his last season.
In total, Karthik represented six teams in the IPL. Started with Daredevils (2008-14), moved to Kings XI Punjab (now Punjab Kings – 2011), Mumbai Indians (2012-13), Gujarat Lions (2016-17), Kolkata Knight Riders (2018-21) and -RCB ( 2015, 2022-present). In total in 256 matches, Karthik scored 4816 runs in almost 26, scored more than 135 and 22 half-centuries. As a wicketkeeper, Karthik is second in the list after Dhoni in total dismissals (172) and stumpings (36).
A captain based in Tamil Nadu, his home country of cricket, Karthik has led the way in the IPL – six times as the Daredevils’ representative captain, and 37 times between 2018 and 2020 for KKR before stepping down. Overall, his captaincy record reads as follows: 21 wins, 21 losses and one draw. He played 26 Tests, 94 ODIs and 60 T20Is for India, leading in various roles, such as the Test opener in England or the T20I finisher in Sri Lanka. He was also athletic behind the stumps, a trait that was evident even at the start of his international career as a 19-year-old.
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