Veteran India cricketer and former Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) wicketkeeper-batter Dinesh Karthik has already decided his next move as far as the IPL is concerned as the 39-year-old has signed up with the franchise as the batting coach and mentor. Karthik, who announced his retirement from the IPL following RCB's elimination from the tournament in the eliminator against the Rajasthan Royals in May this year, has decided to stay with the franchise but in a different capacity.
"Welcome our keeper in every sense, Dinesh Karthik, back into RCB in an all new avatar. DK will be the Batting Coach and Mentor of RCB Men’s team! You can take the man out of cricket but not cricket out of the man," RCB said in a post on X (formerly Twitter.)
While Dinesh Karthik has established himself in the commentary role in the latter stage of his career and is likely to continue for the rest of his life with the tactical acumen he has as a T20 batter, him being part of the coaching staff of an IPL side was always on the cards and he has decided to stay loyal to RCB, the side which became one of the reasons for his India comeback late in his career.
Karthik ended his IPL career on a high-scoring 326 runs in the season at a strike rate of 187 as he provided some really terrific finishes to RCB's innings on multiple occasions. In 60 matches for the franchise across four seasons, Karthik has 937 runs in his name playing for RCB and became the second-highest Indian player in terms of number of runs for the franchise after Virat Kohli, who has played his whole career for the same team.
RCB came out of nowhere to qualify for the playoffs but their magical run came to an end in the eliminator. With a mega-auction coming, there will be a lot of changes in the squad ahead of the 2025 edition of the IPL.
