At the end of Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s IPL 2024 campaign, Dinesh Karthik announced his retirement and Virat Kohli paid a heartfelt tribute to him. In the course of his struggles in the 2022 season, Kohli described Karthik as a very wise guy who served as a very important pillar.
Dinesh Karthik, aged at 38 years joined RCB from Kolkata Knight Riders in 2022 for his second stint after 2015 and he played his last IPL match on Wednesday when RCB lost to Rajasthan Royals in the playoffs.
“He is someone who has had some really good and interesting conversations with me off the field. Not just cricket but wise man knows much else about,” said Kohli in an emotional tribute video posted by RCB which lasted slightly more than 11 minutes. Their messages are featured in a tribute video that lasts for just over eleven minutes. It includes; Dipika Pallikal Dinesh Karthik-Karthik’s wife, Abhishek Nayar-personal mentor, Malolan Rangarajan-RCB assistant coach and Shanker Basu-fitness coach.
During the challenging IPL season of 2022 I had conversations with him. Kohli also remembered how difficult he found it without any confidence despite not having such great times during my Indian Premier League Season in 2022 which almost made me feel like quitting altogether. He did try several times to explain to me why things were not working out but I was too stubborn and blind to see through them myself.
Karthik is one of those veterans of T20 who have played all seasons since it began back in April 2008 featuring six teams including captaining KKR into playoffs once during its existence till date. With this performance came an accumulation of runs amounting to 4842 over a total number of games totaling two hundred fifty seven inclusive of fifties totaling twenty two (22).
“He is somebody who can just go to anybody and speak his mind about what he really feels. That’s why I feel that Dinesh is special to me. I have always loved him for that reason. We get along very well because of this,” said Kohli.
Karthik’s wisdom and guidance has had a lot of influence on RCB and the wider cricket fraternity, it meant so much to both teammates and fans, though. Rather, this marks the end of an accomplished IPL career; it means his contributions will live on as part of the game forever.
