Royal Challengers Bengaluru wicketkeeper batter Dinesh Karthik has achieved a rare milestone in the Indian Premier League. Karthik, who is still having a dream to represent India in the T20 World Cup, has been one of the key performers for RCB with the bat in the ongoing season of the tournament.
Karthik has now achieved a rare milestone as he has become only the third player in the history of IPL to feature in 250 matches of the tournament. Before him, only MS Dhoni and Rohit Sharma have achieved the feat. Notably, both Dhoni and Rohit have played their 250th game in the current season of the Indian cash-rich league.
Karthik has played for six IPL teams in total. He started his IPL career with Delhi Daredevils in 2008 and then has been part of Kings XI Punjab, Mumbai Indians, Royal Challengers Bengaluru, Gujarat Lions and Kolkata Knight Riders.
Players with most matches in IPL:
MS Dhoni: 256 matches
Rohit Sharma: 250 matches
Dinesh Karthik: 250 matches
Virat Kohli: 245 matches
Ravindra Jadeja: 232 matches
Ahead of his 250th game, Karthik has made 4742 runs in 249 matches in IPL. He does not have a century as he has batted in the middle-order most of the times but has 22 fifty-plus scores. As a wicketkeeper, Karthik has the second-most runs, only behind MS Dhoni. The RCB gloveman has made 4369 runs as wicketkeeper, while Dhoni has made 5051 runs as a gloveman in the Indian cash-rich league.
RCB are on the brink of getting eliminated as their playoff hopes are hanging by a thin thread. The Bengaluru-based franchise has won a solitary game in its first seven outings. RCB are also placed at the bottom of the points table.
Meanwhile, KKR are a much more settled unit in comparison to RCB. Their batting is firing well while the bowling department is complementing the batters well. They find themselves in third place in the points table with four wins in their seven games. Notably, RCB won the toss and asked KKR to bat first in the clash at the Eden Gardens.
KKR's Playing XI:
Philip Salt (wk), Sunil Narine, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Shreyas Iyer (c), Venkatesh Iyer, Andre Russell, Rinku Singh, Ramandeep Singh , Mitchell Starc, Varun Chakaravarthy, Harshit Rana
RCB's Playing XI:
Faf du Plessis (c), Virat Kohli, Will Jacks, Rajat Patidar, Cameron Green, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Mahipal Lomror, Karn Sharma, Lockie Ferguson, Yash Dayal, Mohammed Siraj
