Dinesh Karthik will lead Kolkata Knight Riders in IPL 2018 edition. KKR Franchise picked the 32-years-old Wicket-Keeper Batsman Karthik on the auction of Indian Premier League 2018. Robin Uthappa, a wicket-keeper batsman, who was also among the top contenders for the captain’s profile, has been named as the vice-captain. KKR did not retain back their long-serving Captain Gautam Gambhir on this year. Might be he get this opportunity experience of his captaining in domestic cricket. Karthik led Tamil Nadu to a title victory in the Vizay Hazare trophy in 2009-10 with the 72% win record Karthik led India red in last year Duleep Trophy. Karthik also led TUTI Patriots in the 2016 edition of Tamil Nadu Premier League.
Two-times IPL champion franchise Kolkata Knight Riders have a great legacy in this prestigious tournament. They will kick-start their journey against Royal Challengers Bangalore on April 8. Legendary All-rounder Jacques Kallis was appointed as the Main-Coach of this team, and this time Karthik will try to take the team forward where Gautam Gambhir left. “Big thanks to Gautam (Gambhir). An excellent leader.” – KKR CEO Venky Mysore said after Appointing Karthik as Captain. As we all know that KKR has a pretty modest squad. The similarities of Shubman Gill and Kamlesh Nagarkoti — who helped India win the 2018 U-19 World Cup, will be prickling to make a mark in VIVO IPL 2018.
Here's a message for all #KnightRiders from our Captain, @DineshKarthik ?#KorboLorboJeetbo pic.twitter.com/MNAvDM4tHp
— KolkataKnightRiders (@KKRiders) March 4, 2018
Karthik Track-Record in IPL
Karthik has composed 2903 runs in the last ten editions of IPL. In last year he played for Gujarat Lions and scored 361 runs with an impressive batting average of 36.1. The expert Keeper-batsman also played for Mumbai Indians, Kings XI Punjab and Royal Challengers Bangalore before this edition. In 2013 edition of Indian Premier League, he played an important role in helping Mumbai Indians to grip the coveted trophy by scoring 510 runs and achieving 14 dismissals. The expert ‘keeper-batsman, effected 114 dismissals in IPL. Karthik has played 228 T20s, apart from 14 international matches for India, with 4441 runs and 186 dismissals to his name. This is the total track-record of Karthik in Indian Premier League all editions.
| 2017 | 14 | 3 | 361 | 65 | 36.10 | 259 | 139.38 | 0 | 2 | 30 | 11 | 8 | 0 |
| 2016 | 16 | 2 | 335 | 53 | 25.76 | 266 | 125.93 | 0 | 3 | 38 | 3 | 11 | 3 |
| 2015 | 16 | 0 | 141 | 28 | 12.81 | 117 | 120.51 | 0 | 0 | 15 | 4 | 14 | 4 |
| 2014 | 14 | 0 | 325 | 69 | 23.21 | 258 | 125.96 | 0 | 3 | 28 | 11 | 7 | 2 |
| 2013 | 19 | 1 | 510 | 86 | 28.33 | 411 | 124.08 | 0 | 2 | 54 | 14 | 12 | 2 |
| 2012 | 17 | 1 | 238 | 44 | 18.30 | 213 | 111.73 | 0 | 0 | 30 | 2 | 5 | 2 |
| 2011 | 14 | 2 | 282 | 69 | 25.63 | 220 | 128.18 | 0 | 1 | 32 | 7 | 7 | 0 |
| 2010 | 14 | 1 | 278 | 69 | 21.38 | 237 | 117.29 | 0 | 1 | 26 | 6 | 6 | 6 |
| 2009 | 15 | 5 | 288 | 52 | 36.00 | 217 | 132.71 | 0 | 1 | 20 | 9 | 12 | 5 |
| 2008 | 13 | 2 | 145 | 56* | 24.16 | 107 | 135.51 | 0 | 1 | 13 | 4 | 6 | 2 |
Very Nice and Very Good