Former Sri Lankan legend and current Rajasthan Royals (RR) Director of Cricket, Kumar Sangakkara said that the former Indian cricketer Dinesh Karthik is “one of the best finishers in T20 cricket worldwide”. Karthik will be playing for Paarl Royals in the third season of SA20, making him the first-ever Indian player to play in the competition, announced the franchise back in August.
As the Royals’ Director of Cricket, Sangakkara would be working closely with Karthik. Karthik, who is widely renowned for his role as a finisher in white ball cricket, had a solid international career for India, being part of the team’s ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2007 and ICC Men’s Champions Trophy 2013 wins.
He represented India in 180 international matches across formats and registered 172 dismissals to his name through his sharp and reliable glovework behind the stumps. He scored 3,463 runs with a century and 17 fifties across all three formats for India. In the T20 format alone for various teams, including in the Indian Premier League (IPL), Karthik has scored 7,407 runs in 401 matches at a strike rate of 136.96, with 34 fifties, which shows the consistency with which he has played the game for over two decades.
DK, as he is fondly known, last played competitive cricket during this year’s IPL for Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) where he played a crucial role in the team’s playoffs qualification, scoring 326 runs in 14 matches at a strike rate of 187.36, with two half-centuries. Discussing the replacements for Jos Buttler and the addition of Joe Root and Dinesh Karthik, Sangakkara emphasised their importance to the squad, said, “It is very important.
Joe Root is not just an incredibly experienced and capable player; what he adds to the team in terms of knowledge, experience, and how he invests himself into the team and connects with other players is magnificent. I saw this first-hand when he joined us in the IPL. Dinesh Karthik, again, is fantastic at the back end of a