Dinesh Karthik
Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) player Dinesh Karthik on Monday resumed his duties as a cricketer, donning the KKR jersey once again, after a brief commentary stint. He returned to action in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021 game against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi.
Karthik was named as one of the commentators, for the first time in his career, for the ICC World Test Championship final between India and New Zealand. He continued his stint during the limited-overs series between England and Sri Lanka.
“There are a lot of other sports like basketball and football where current players come on air when they are not playing. Even now during the Sri Lanka-England T20s, James Anderson was doing it for BBC in the next room,” Karthik was quoted as saying by Hindustan Times while talking about his commentary.
“So it is a normal thing, it is only in India I think it is considered like that (post-retirement option). I obviously want to break that stereotype to an extent and I am happy to do this when I am not playing,” he added.
Karthik on Monday made his 204th appearance in IPL, scoring 3946 runs at 26.1 with 19 half-centuries. This season he has scored 123 runs in seven innings at a strike rate of 138.2.
