Dinesh Karthik not retired? Andy Flower's sensational claim after IPL's official announcement

Royal Challengers Bengaluru's head coach Andy Flower has come up with a massive revelation about Dinesh Karthik playing a few more seasons of IPL. 

Last night at the Narendra Modi stadium, Dinesh Karthik played his final match in the richest T20 league of the world and it had a very sad ending. RCB and Karthik, after a fairytale comeback in IPL 2024 after losing 7 of their first 8 matches, crashed out of the tournament with a loss against Rajasthan Royals in the Eliminator match. 

With that defeat, Bengaluru's unbeaten streak of 7 games came to an end as they lost it all when it mattered the most. Sanju Samson's Royals proved to be the better team out of the two and they are now just one win away from entering their 2nd IPL finale in 3 years. Their win saw Dinesh Karthik get reduced to tears and Virat Kohli was also seen consoling him after the match. 

What did Andy Flower say about Dinesh Karthik's future? 

While speaking to the press reporters in Ahmedabad last night, Andy Flower made a positive claim about Dinesh Karthik's future in IPL. The Zimbabwean firstly highlighted that Karthik had arrived in IPL 2024 after not playing many matches but still whatever he did for RCB was 'special'. 

Flower hailed Dinesh Karthik's attitude towards contributing to the welfare of the team and claimed that it is a quality that will help him in the future. The former LSG head coach also stated that DK will be successful in whatever he does and had a special appreciation for the veteran wicket-keeper batsman's commentary skills.  

"He hadn't played a lot of cricket, leading into the tournament. What he has done for us -- runs-wise, attitude-wise -- has been really special. I respect him for that. He is going to be super successful in whatever he goes on to. He is a brilliant commentator already." - Andy Flower told press reporters. 

Flower further stated that Dinesh Karthik has a very good quality of helping others around him, something that can also help him become a coach. The former Zimbabwe captain then dropped the major bombshell that Karthik might as well play a few more tournaments in the future.

"He quite likes the idea of coaching as well -- helping and working with other people which I am not surprised about. He will be a great success when he does that as well. I also think he might play a few more little tournaments along the way." - Andy Flower concluded.  

Dinesh Karthik's performance in IPL 2024 

Dinesh Karthik experienced a comeback IPL 2024 season following a poor 2023 edition where he had scored just 140 runs from 13 matches. This season, Karthik scored 326 runs, which is his best run-scoring tally since IPL 2022. His 300+ runs came at a very good strike rate of 187.36 at an average of nearly 37. In terms of boundary count, Karthik smashed 22 sixes and scored 27 fours.