Dinesh Karthik revealed a hilarious sledge from Hardik Pandya when Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) and Mumbai Indians (MI) clashed in the IPL 2024 tournament recently. Karthik announced his retirement from the Indian Premier League and international cricket after IPL 2024.
Karthik turned out for Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the tournament and performed well for the side. He made 326 runs in 15 games while coming as a finisher at a strike rate of 187.36 and a best score of 83. He hit 27 fours and 22 sixes for RCB, who crashed out of the tournament in the Eliminator match.
Karthik’s stellar IPL career has seen him play for up to six clubs in the IPL, scoring nearly 5000 runs across 17 seasons, including 145 catches and 37 stumpings. Karthik is also the competition’s equal second-most capped player, with 257 appearances alongside Rohit Sharma and 264 behind CSK’s MS Dhoni.
“Virat Kohli caught my catch, ‘Ben Stokes’ came out of his mouth” – Dinesh Karthik
In a recent conversation with Cricbuzz, Karthik reflected on the numerous types of sledging he has received over his significantly long cricketing career, which also includes ones by the likes of Hardik and Virat Kohli.
“Every time I played against RCB and Virat Kohli caught my catch, ‘Ben Stokes’ came out of his mouth for sure. But that was a send-off. Hardik Pandya sledged me saying ‘Abhi leg-spinner aaya, iska thank you hi hai’ [Now a leg spinner will come, and it is Thank You time] Then I had to play a couple of shots, and then he was like ‘Theek hai, thoda improve ho gaya lag raha hai’. [Looks like he’s improved a bit]. That was good,” Dinesh said.
“He’s a good friend. He was also like ‘Commentator banke bhi thoda kaam kar raha hai’. [Even after becoming a commentator, he’s working on his game] That was fun. Rohit Sharma was also taunting me this year… unnecessarily giving me hope,” Karthik added.
With his professional career presumably coming to an end, Karthik may try to explore his options as a pundit and was recently named to the commentary panel for the upcoming 2024 T20 World Cup.
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