Legendary Indian cricketer Kapil Dev praised wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik for his miraculous return, saying the swashbuckling batter deserved all the glory for his heroics in the IPL and the ongoing T20I series against South Africa.
Since February 2019, Karthik has been absent from India's T20I squad. However, dazzling exploits as a specialist finisher for Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in the IPL 2022, where he scored 330 runs at a strike rate of 183.33, opened the way for a three-year return to the national squad.
In the second T20I against South Africa, Karthik struck an undefeated 30 runs off 21 balls. The 37-year-old reversed the block and smashed 21 runs off the final five balls of the game.
"He has performed so well this time that the selectors have been forced to realise, 'hey, you can't overlook me.' Rishabh Pant is a youngster with a lot of crickets on his hands. Dinesh Karthik has a lot of experience and a lot of accomplishments, so I can't say enough good things about him "Uncut spoke with Kapil Dev.
Rahul Dravid, the Indian team's head coach, has also intimated that Karthik will continue to play the specialty finisher role that he did at RCB.
It's not easy for any player to continue playing with the same commitment for so many years, according to Kapil Dev, who noted that Karthik made his international debut before MS Dhoni, who retired from international cricket in 2020.
"He was a cricket player much before MS Dhoni. It's been two years since Dhoni retired, but Karthik has maintained his level of enthusiasm, and it's not easy to love the game with the same passion and heart after so many years. Dinesh Karthik is the most consistent of them all when it comes to consistency. He always delivers, regardless of how many balls he faces - 20, 10, or 15, as we saw in the IPL "Kapil Dev also contributed his two cents.