Dinesh Karthik

Karthik has become the 4th Indian batsman to play 300 T20 matches.

Krishnakumar Dinesh Karthik (born 1 June 1985) is an Indian professional cricketer and commentator who nationally plays for the Indian Cricket Team and currently in Indian Premier League playing for Royal Challengers Bangalore.

He is also the current captain of the Tamil Nadu cricket team in domestic cricket.

He made his Tamil Nadu under-14 debut in early 1999, and was promoted to the under-19 side at the beginning of the 2000/2001 season.

He made his first-class debut for the senior side the following season.

Karthik made his first-class debut in late 2002 against Baroda as a wicket-keeper.

He batted in five matches of the round-robin, scoring 179 runs at an average of 35.80 with a top score of 88 not out against Uttar Pradesh in his second match.

Karthik's form tapered off after this match, and he failed to pass 20 again during the season.

He took 11 catches but, due to repeated wicket-keeping errors, he was dropped from the season's final matches.

Karthik was overlooked in the selection for the zonal Duleep Trophy, and played in the under-19s for South Zone.

He was more productive in his second zonal season, scoring 180 runs at 60.00 with three half-centuries.

He was selected for the national under-19 team, and played in three youth One Day Internationals (ODIs) against Nepal.

Karthik attended a wicket-keeping camp in the off-season under, guided by former Indian keeper and chairman of selectors Kiran More, which he credited with improving his technique.

After playing in the Chennai League, he returned to the under-22 team at the start of the season before his selection for India Emerging Players to play their youthful counterparts from Sri Lanka and Pakistan in late September.

Karthik was recalled to the Ranji Trophy team at the beginning of the 2003–04 season.

He scored 438 runs (an average of 43.80), with two centuries, and took 20 catches.

In the semi-final against Railways, he scored his maiden first-class century with 122 runs.

He followed this with an unbeaten 109 in the final against Mumbai.

He made his debut for the Indian cricket team in 2004.

Karthik was selected for the India squad in the 2004 Under-19 Cricket World Cup in Bangladesh, and scored two half-centuries on an India A tour to Zimbabwe.

Karthik was a member of the team that won both the inaugural 2007 T20 World Cup and the 2013 ICC Champions Trophy.

He made his maiden Test century against Bangladesh and was India's leading scorer in their Test tour of England, helping India win their first series in England in 21 years.

After a drop in form in September 2007, Karthik was dropped from the Test team.

He has made only sporadic international appearances since then, although he continues to score well domestically.

Karthik was married to Nikita Vanjara in 2007.

He participated in the dance-reality show Ek Khiladi Ek Hasina with Nigaar Khan in 2008.

Dinesh Karthik and Nikita divorced in 2012 due to dysfunctionalities in their relationship.

She later married Karthik's fellow cricketer Murali Vijay.

Karthik got engaged to Indian squash player Dipika Pallikal in November 2013, and they married in traditional Christian and Hindu ceremonies in August 2015.

The couple became parents to twin boys, Kabir and Zian on 18 October 2021.

Between 2018 and 2020, he was the captain of IPL team Kolkata Knight Riders.

Karthik has also worked occasionally as a commentator/pundit for British channel Sky Sports between 2020 and 2021, most notably during India's tour of England.

Dinesh Karthik was born into a Telugu speaking family from Chennai, India.

He began playing cricket at the age of 10, after a two-year period of living in Kuwait (where his father worked).

Karthik was educated in India, and at Carmel School and Fahaheel Al-Watanieh Indian Private School in Kuwait and finally from eighth standard on studied at Don Bosco Matriculation Higher Secondary School in Egmore in Chennai.

He was coached in cricket by his father, who was a first-division cricketer from Chennai.

Disappointed that his career was hindered when he was forced by his family to put his education first, Karthik's father did not want his son to suffer the same fate and trained him hard from an early age.

Karthik honed his reflexes at a young age by having his father throw hard leather balls at him at high speed.

He was initially a batsman and learned wicket-keeping on the Tamil Nadu youth teams, and Robin Singh considered him very fit.

Karthik steadily ascended the youth ranks.