‘As a player, you need to understand your strengths’ – Dinesh Karthik sheds light on his finisher tag after Bengaluru exploits

Dinesh Karthik. (Source -IPL/BCCI)

Dinesh Karthik has been at his very best in the Indian Premier League 2024 so far. He is touted as the ultimate finisher in the Royal Challengers Bengaluru echelons. He has lived up to the tag as he saved RCB’s grace against Sunrisers Hyderabad in the runfest. Though RCB lost the game, Karthik was applauded for his 83 runs off just 35 balls in Bengaluru on Monday, April 15.

Rohit Sharma had joked while Karthik came out to bat against Mumbai Indians. He took a jibe at the wicketkeeper-batter that the latter is eyeing for a T20 World Cup 2024 berth. This has been the case with the Tamil Nadu batter. He came out of nowhere and got a ticket to England for the 2019 World Cup. He then flew to Australia for the 2022 T20 World Cup, on the back of timely performances. Speaking of the World Cup prospects, Karthik said it is up to the selectors and the captain of the team.

Also Read: Will do everything to be on that flight to the T20 World Cup: Dinesh Karthik

“I think these days as a player, you need to understand your strengths. I’m not [Andre] Russell or [Kieron] Pollard who can mishit a ball and get a six for it. So I need to understand how I do. How I can beat gaps, what sort of balls I can hit for boundaries. And I realised there was a certain pattern in which bowlers were bowling to me. So, I needed to try and work out a solution for that,” Karthik said in RCB’s pre-match press conference.

I try and understand what they’re going to bowl at me: Karthik

The 38-year-old has been dominating the social media feeds owing to his dual roles in the field of cricket. He part-times as a commentator and goes on to play competitive cricket at the same time. His fine tuning could be asserted from the fact that he has hit a 108 metre six in the tournament. Shedding light on his batting, he expressed his knowledge of reading the bowler’s mind.

Also Read: ‘DK will be easy to convince I guess’ – Rohit Sharma on persuading MS Dhoni, Dinesh Karthik for T20 World Cup 2024

“And hence, when I practice, I try and understand, okay, this is what they’re going to bowl at me. How am I going to get a boundary visualizing a field that is going to be in place for me? So I worked like that, and I worked backwards, and that’s helped me, you know, really learn a couple of shots more, you know, at the back end. It’s been great to go out there and express myself, and it’s been thoroughly enjoyable to do what I’m doing for RCB as a finisher,” he added.