AB de Villiers praised the veteran Indian cricketer Dinesh Karthik for the way he has played this season so far.De Villiers, who announced his retirement from all forms of cricket last year, said that Karthik gets him excited and has made him feel to return to the cricketing field again.
AB de Villiers Praises Dinesh Karthik
Karthik, who was dropped out of the national squad after the 2019 ODI World Cup, is now looking to book a slot for the upcoming T20 World Cup in Australia. The 36-year-old had failed to cash in on his iconic knock against Bangladesh in the Nidahas Trophy final in 2018.
The historic win provided Karthik’s comeback including him getting the captaincy for the Kolkata Knight Riders, and an international comeback.
However, his choppy form led to his exclusion from the national team after the 2019 World Cup, and Karthik was struggling since then. He even switched to commentary in between, but RCB showed belief in him at the IPL 2022 auction, and bought the wicketkeeper-batter for Rs 5.5 crore.
“The form he is at this moment and he has already won RCB 2-3 games. He looks like he is in the form of his life. I don’t know where that comes from because he hasn’t played a lot of cricket. But man, he looks in good form and he plays around the wicket 360 degrees.
He almost makes me feel like I want to go back and play some cricket again, watching him play. He gets me excited, plays under pressure in the middle order and he’s got a lot of experience and if he keeps his form up there is a good chance that RCB are going a long way up,” De Villiers said on VUSport Streaming ahead of RCB’s game against Lucknow Super Giants.
AB admitted that he was shocked to see Dinesh Karthik batting for Bangalore in IPL 2022 adding that he has had no cricket exposure in the last few months and was commentating in England before the second leg of IPL 2021.
Karthik has scored 197 runs in 6 matches for RCB this season at an average of 197.
“I was incredibly surprised and I didn’t expect it. I have always known that he is a very capable player, a nitty-gritty kind of a guy. He likes the high-pressure situations and he’s a busy player at the wicket. But he hasn’t played a lot of cricket.
The last time I saw him before IPL he was commentating in the UK. He wasn’t playing a lot of domestic cricket and I though he is possibly at the end of his career finishing. But he surprised us all I think with the intent and energy,”
RCB who is currently placed in the second position in the IPL 2022 points table will lock their horns with Sunrisers Hyderabad to play the 36th league match of IPL 2022 on April 23 in Brabourne Stadium, Mumbai.
