‘Pretty sure ‘Ben Stokes’ came out of Virat Kohli’s mouth’: Karthik reveals send-off, Hardik-Rohit sledging during IPL

Dinesh Karthik’s final IPL may not have ended the way he would have liked it to, but it did round up being part of a pretty memorable campaign from the Royal Challengers Bengaluru. Down and out in the first half of the season with the players ready to pack their bags and planning their trips back home, RCB found a second wind, and by winning six out of six and making it to the Playoffs, boy, did they cash in on it. Virat Kohli was in sizzling form, scoring nearly 750 runs to bag the Orange Cap, while Rajat Patidar was a rock in the middle order.

To finish things off, though, Karthik was once again the man RCB could count on. The veteran wicketkeeper batter, who had announced that the ongoing season would be his IPL swansong, and while he would have hoped for him and the team to go the distance, Karthik rode into the sunset following RCB’s defeat to Rajasthan Royals in the Eliminator.

Before Karthik called time on his playing career, the former RCB wicketkeeper-batter was sledged by Mumbai Indians skipper Hardik Pandya in the IPL 2024. While discussing the sledge talks in the IPL, the former RCB star also mentioned Kohli. Karthik recalled that Kohli often poked him whenever the former RCB skipper completed his dismissal in the cash-rich league.

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‘Every time I played against RCB and Virat Kohli…’

“Every time I played against RCB and Virat Kohli took my catch, ‘Ben Stokes’ came out of his mouth pretty sure. But that was a send-off. Hardik Pandya sledged me saying ‘Abhi leg-spinner aaya, iska thank you hi hai’ [Now a leg spinner will come, and it is Thank You time] Then I had to play a couple of shots, and then he was like ‘Theek hai, thoda improve ho gaya lag raha hai’. [Looks like he’s improved a bit]. That was good,” Karthik told Cricbuzz.

‘Rohit Sharma was also taunting…’

Karthik is one of the seven players who have played in every season of the IPL so far. Turning 39 in June, the former RCB star had an eventful season with the Kohli-starrer side in the IPL 2024. Karthik, who smashed 326 runs in 15 games, revealed that even Rohit Sharma did not hold back in pulling his leg in one of the games.

“He’s a good friend. He was also like ‘commentator banke bhi thoda kaam kar raha hai’. [Even after becoming a commentator, he’s working on his game] That was fun. Rohit Sharma was also taunting me this year… unnecessarily giving me hopes,” Karthik added.

Karthik played 26 Tests, 94 One Day Internationals (ODIs) and 60 T20Is for India. The former India star made his IPL debut with Delhi Capitals (DC) against Rajasthan Royals (RR) at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in 2008. The 38-year-old has played 257 matches in the world’s richest T20 league. DK amassed 4842 in the IPL and won the trophy with the Mumbai Indians in 2013.