Dinesh Karthik Can Handle Pressure As KKR Captain

Indian Premier League (IPL) has been conducted in April-May of every year since 2008. This year, IPL starts on April 7 with the first match between the defending Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings that came back after 2 years suspension. Another highlight of this IPL 2018 is that Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) did not retain or bid for Gautam Gambhir who led KKR to win two IPL titles (2012 and 2014). When asked about its reason, the team mangement replied that Gautam voluntarily left the team and requested not to retain him as he wished to play for his home team Delhi Daredevils (DD) this time.

In these circumstances, interestingly, the last ball six hitter Dinesh Karthik has been given the responsibility to lead KKR besides wicket-keeping and batting. The 32-year old TamilNadu cricketer has been bought for 7.4 crore for IPL 2018. He had enough experience in being a part of 5 IPL teams - RCB, MI, Punjab, DD and Gujarat Lions in previous seasons.

In the KKR's jersey launch function on Sunday, Dinesh Karthik said It would not be so simple to fill Gautam Gambhir's space in  Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) team but he was confident in fulfilling the captain's space satisfying the management's expectation. He also added that he would be in pressure as a captain and everyone would expect me to take the team to playoffs atleast. He affirmed that he would bring the best out of the team and cited that everybody in the team had their own roles as he had and so he was not different to it.

Replying to a question about his last ball six, Dinesh Karthik said that he was lucky on that day when the Indain team needed boundaries in the last two overs of final of Nidahas Trophy and added that it was a great game.

Meanwhile, Dinesh Karthik asserted a few words about his wife Dipika Pallikal who is also the Indian Squash player. He said he liked her will power to win an another gold in Commonwealth Games starting on April 4 in Gold coast, Australia and wished her good luck. Previously, she won gold for India in Glasgow Commonwealth Games 2014.