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India wicket-keeper batsman Dinesh Karthik, recently picked his all-time T20 XI in the Indian Premier League (IPL). The only criterion for his selection was having played at least one game with the players.
Karthik, renowned for his finishing abilities lower down the order, has represented several franchises in all seasons of the tournament.
Starting with Delhi Daredevils (DD), now Delhi Capitals, Karthik made a move to Mumbai Indians (MI) and Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB). After a brief stint at Kings XI Punjab (KXIP), he represented the now-disbanded Gujarat Lions (GL) and then finally was appointed as captain by Venky Mysore co-owned Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR).
Therefore, Karthik has rubbed shoulders with a plethora of superstars during his nomadic IPL career. Interestingly, the Tamil Nadu titan has not played cricket in front of his home crowd at Chepauk, donning the yellow jersey of Chennai Super Kings (CSK).
Much like his international career, his IPL tenure was also eclipsed by MS Dhoni at Chennai. Hence, Karthik expressed his disappointment for not being able to include MSD and Tamil Nadu teammate Ravichandran Ashwin, since they never played together in the cash-rich league.
From his stint at KKR, Karthik included superstar West Indies all-rounders Andre Russell and Sunil Narine.
DK was fortunate enough to share the dugout with some of the cricketing greats at DD, notably Tillakaratne Dilshan, AB de Villiers and Glenn McGrath. He has included ‘The Pigeon’ into his XI along with Delhi stars Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir.
At MI, Karthik played under four-time IPL winner Rohit Sharma. DK appointed Rohit as captain in his XI along with Yuzvendra Chahal and Jasprit Bumrah from his stay at the Mumbai-based franchise.
Finally, it was a no-brainer to choose Virat Kohli and Mitchell Starc from the RCB camp. The two are arguably the best in their respective departments.
Dinesh Karthik’s all-time IPL XI:
Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma (c), Dinesh Karthik (wk), Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Glenn McGrath, Jasprit Bumrah, Mitchell Starc, Yuzvendra Chahal.
