Veteran Indian and Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) wicketkeeper-batter Dinesh Karthik on Sunday opened up on one of the biggest regrets of his cricketing career and a tense professional relationship with spinner Kuldeep Yadav during his days of struggle with Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) back in Indian Premier League (IPL) 2019. Karthik, currently playing for RCB, has set the IPL on fire with his skill as a finisher. In the tournament so far, which is supposed to be his last IPL ever, Karthik has made 90 runs in four matches at an average of 45.00 and a strike rate of over 173.
In 247 IPL matches, Karthik has made 4,606 runs at an average of 26.02, with a strike rate of over 133, having scored 20 fifties. His best score is 97*. He is the 10th-highest run-getter in the tournament's history.
After his stint with Delhi Capitals till 2010, the right-handed batter had stints with Kings XI Punjab (now Punjab Kings, 2011), Mumbai Indians (2012-13), Delhi again in 2014, Royal Challengers Bangalore (2015, 2022-present), Gujarat Lions (2016-17), Kolkata Knight Riders (2018-21). He won the 2013 IPL title with MI, which remains his only IPL title to this day.
Karthik, who won the 2013 season with MI, said on Ravichandran Ashwin's YouTube channel that his regret was not wanting to be retained by the Blue and Gold franchise after a brilliant 2013 season. Staying with MI would have helped him grow into an even better player. His another regret was not being able to represent his home state with the Chennai Super Kings (CSK).
"If you had to actually ask me one of my regrets in my cricketing career in respect to IPL, it was the fact that I did not want to get retained in 2013. If I had to rewind that whole thing and go back, and that is when I think sometimes, as a young player, you need someone as a life coach, if I had had Abishek Nayar at that stage, I know he would have said play for the Mumbai Indians," said Karthik.
"I do not have too many regrets in life. I am not that kind of a person, but if I have two regrets in my cricketing career in terms of IPL, one would be the fact that I chose not to get retained because I thought MI was a team that could have really helped me grow and become an even better player."
"And two would be the fact that, obviously, I could not represent CSK so far. But that I understand, though it is a regret because I could not play. I mean, coming from Chennai, I played all my cricket there, and I would have loved to be part of the yellow jersey, but I always respect them because they genuinely try every year to try and get me in the auction," he concluded.
The wicketkeeper-batter said that he had an option to stay with Mumbai Indians, but he chose not to stay despite the infrastructure present, the star power and the leadership of captain-coach Rohit Sharma and Ricky Ponting back then. He also said that he had a good relationship with the Ambani family as well, who owned the franchise.
"I had the opportunity to be retained, and I declined it because I thought if I went into the auction, you know, a typical young boy who wanted to obviously chance his time in the auction, and I went inside and I became part of the auction. I just felt if I had been part of the Mumbai Indians at that stage, I would have grown a lot more as a player. The kind of infrastructure they had, the kind of team that they built, and being part of the team that was led by Rohit Sharma. [Ricky] Ponting was a coach, and the owners were brilliant with me as well.
"I had a really good relationship with Akash [Ambani], Anant [Ambani], and, to a small extent, even Nita [Ambani] bhabhi. So I had a good relationship, and you know, I just felt that if I had been part of that team, it would have helped me grow as a cricketer and as a person, and hence, when I look back at it, a decade has passed since I just felt I missed an opportunity there in Mumbai," he added.
In the 2013 season, Karthik scored 510 runs in 19 matches at an average of 28.33 and a strike rate of over 124, with two fifties. His best score was 86.
Karthik, who captained KKR from 2018-20, admitted that there were some "tough conversations" with spinner Kuldeep Yadav, who had to stay benched after taking just four wickets in nine games in the 2019 season.
The wicketkeeper-batter revealed that the spinner was not doing as well as he is right now and he had to be "honest" with Kuldeep. He expressed happiness at spinner's progress since then, saying that he has become a better bowler and a "world-beater". He expressed hope that Kuldeep, now a part of Delhi Capitals since 2022, is able to understand what Dinesh wanted to convey to him back then and there was nothing personal between them.
"Leading a franchise is altogether a different job. There are many other cultures, and you will find it challenging to deal with other individuals. You can be very honest with them. As a leader, you will lose out on certain friendships," he said.
"During my time as KKR captain, Kuldeep (Yadav) was not doing as well as he is right now. There were tough conversations with him, and I don't think he would have appreciated me at that stage. I had to be tough with him."
"It was a hard time for Kuldeep. I think those tough times have made him a better bowler today. My bad luck is that I had to be a part of that bad phase in his life. I hope he understands what I did. I do not want him to appreciate it and be ok with it. You have to take decisions for the team and there was nothing personal," concluded Karthik.