IPL 2022: Dinesh Karthik the finisher shows he is not done yet
RCB captain Faf believes the keeper-batter still good enough for international cricket
Dinesh Karthik, who was bought by Royal Challengers Bangalore in the auction, has been playing the role of a finisher with perfection for his new franchise so far.
For the past three seasons, he was with Kolkata Knight Riders and performing the same role but not with consistency. He started this season against Punjab Kings by giving the finishing touch to the innings by scoring 32 off just 14 balls to take his team past the 200-mark - albeit in a losing cause.
In the second game against his old franchise Kolkata Knight Riders, he had a point to prove and in a tricky low-scoring game, he scored 14 of seven balls to see his team home and give the franchise their first win. He showed against Rajasthan Royals in the third game at the Wankhede Stadium as to why he is called as the finisher by taking his team out of the woods when they were struggling at 85 for five in chasing 170.
At the end of 13 overs the score read 88 for five, his team needed 82 of 42 balls. This is when Karthik took Ashwin apart by scoring 21 runs off him and then hit Navdeep Saini for 16 runs in the next over to completely tilt the balance of the game and win the game from a losing position by scoring 44 of 23 balls to win the Man of the Match and also get his team get two more crucial points.
So impressed was his captain Faf du Plesis that he believes Kartik should put his name back in to international cricket. ‘DK’ said during the post-match presentation that he had put in a lot of hard work in his practice and he is putting a conscious effort to prove he is not done yet. Only time will tell whether he can make a cut to the Indian team for the T20 World cup, but he is leaving no stone unturned in putting the hard yards to achieve his goal.
- Cricket enthusiast Anis Sajan is the Vice Chairman of Danube Group