Dinesh Karthik has called time on his playing career. The wicketkeeper-batter last played for India in the 2022 T20 World Cup and did put his hand up to play in the 2024 edition as well but will now be focusing his efforts elsewhere. Karthik announced his decision on Saturday, his 39th birthday bringing to a close a career that began in 2002-03.
Over the last few years, however, Karthik has only been active in domestic cricket and the IPL circuit, where he's been a fixture since the inaugural season in 2008. He signs off after Royal Challengers Bengaluru's (RCB's)
playoff game against Rajasthan Royals (RR) in Ahmedabad earlier this month. He made 11 off 13 and picked up a catch and a stumping.
ESPNcricinfo had reported prior to the start of IPL 2024 that it would be the last IPL season for Karthik, so the announcement was on the cards. He will leave the tournament as one of just seven players to have featured in every edition of the 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 missed just two matches in his 17 seasons. The first one was in his maiden 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 when he was part of RCB.
The latest stint with RCB was Karthik's second with the team, after he had played a single season with them in 2015. He was their
fourth highest run-getter with a tally of 326 from 13 innings at a strike rate of 187. He continued to
show signs of evolution even though it was his final season.
Overall, Karthik represented six IPL teams. Starting with Daredevils (2008-14), he 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). Overall in 256 matches, Karthik has scored 4816 runs at an average of nearly 26, striking at over 135 with 22 half centuries. As a keeper, Karthik is second on list behind Dhoni in overall dismissals (172) as well as stumpings (36).
An established captain in Tamil Nadu, his state in domestic cricket, Karthik has also led in the IPL - on six occasions as a stand-in skipper at Daredevils, and 37 times between 2018 and 2020 at KKR before he stepped down. Overall, his captaincy record reads: 21 wins, 21 losses and one tied match. He played 26 Tests, 94 ODIs and 60 T20Is for India, fronting up in various roles, like
Test opener in England or a
T20I finisher in Sri Lanka. He was athletic behind the stumps as well, a trait that was clear even on international debut at 19 years old.
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