Dinesh Karthik's wife Dipika Pallikal threw light on his journey after the player called time on his IPL career. Already out of the radar of the national selectors, the wicketkeeper-batter bid adieu during Royal Challengers Bengaluru's Eliminator match in IPL 2024 against Rajasthan Royals on May 22. The match turned out to be Karthik's last in IPL as RCB's campaign in the tournament ended with a four-wicket loss. While speaking about Karthik's journey, Dipika said that she would have quit, had she been in his place.
"I guess when things are meant to be, they happen. When we met in 2013, it was very fast we knew that we wanted to spend our lives with each other and I am guessing everything clicked," Dipika said in a video posted by RCB on social media.
"One of the things I have really learned from him is that if he doesn't do well, he is dropped from the team, it's just two or three days when he is in a lull, and then he is back on his feet, thinking about what to do next.
"I feel that if anyone else was in that position, a lot of people would have given up long back. Even me, I am an athlete, seeing him in different positions in his career, if I was him, I would definitely have given up. But I think the do-or-die or never-give-up attitude has always been there," she added.
Dinesh Karthik's international career was a classic case of what could have been after the arrival of Mahendra Singh Dhoni but on Wednesday, when he said goodbye to the game at the end of his team's IPL campaign, it was from a stage he made his own over the past 17 years.
Twenty six Tests, 94 ODIs and 60 T20s over two decades don't make for eye-popping numbers but the forever fidgety 38-year-old managed to stay relevant till the very end despite spending more time in the commentary box than on the field over the past couple of years.
(With PTI Inputs)