'No Old Age Drama': MS Dhoni Catches Strays From Fans After Dinesh Karthik's 'IPL Retirement'

Dinesh Karthik has seemingly drawn curtains on his IPL career after his team Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s four-wicket defeat at the hands of Rajasthan Royals in the Eliminator on Wednesday.

A teary-eyed Karthik then began saying his goodbyes to RCB teammates and fans as he shared a warm hug with Virat Kohli.

The veteran wicketkeeper-batter then took off his gloves and went on to wave at the crowd at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. It was certainly an emotional moment for Karthik, who has featured in all seasons of the IPL so far.

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The gesture all but confirmed that the 38-year-old has played in his last IPL match.

After fans sensed Karthik’s retirement, several of them might began questioning why MS Dhoni is yet to bid farewell to the IPL.

The former Chennai Super Kings captain announced his retirement from international cricket in 2020 and has since only played in IPL.

It was speculated that Dhoni may retire after CSK won their fifth title under his captaincy last season. The 42-year-old, however, wanted to continue for one more year, bidding goodbye to fans at CSK’s home venue.

However, CSK failed to qualify for the IPL Playoffs after losing the last league game to RCB last week.

Dhoni, however, has not yet made any official announcement regarding his playing future.

Without mentioning the name of Dhoni, one fan wrote on X (formerly Twitter), “No old age drama, never did retirement drama for attention, never hiding behind others in tough situations. Streets will never forget you Thala Dinesh Karthik thank you for everything and happy retirement from IPL.”

A fan was left disheartened as the Rajasthan Royals unit didn’t give a guard of honour to Karthik after the Eliminator clash in Ahmedabad.

The person wrote, “Dinesh Karthik deserved a better farewell, RCB and RR players should have given him a guard of honour. If it was Dhoni, people would have created a huge thing of it and because he is DK he didn’t get a final goodbye.”

Showing his admiration for the former India cricketer, a person said, “I will always remember Dinesh Karthik as an unsung hero. He had an impressively long career, but never really got enough credit! A very good wicketkeeper. A finisher who took his teams over the line many times.”

Here are some other reactions:

Karthik may not have won IPL with RCB but he did win one with Mumbai Indians in 2013.

He joined the RCB in 2015 before going to the now-defunct Gujarat Titans in the next edition.

The wicketkeeper then spent four seasons with Kolkata Knight Riders before returning to RCB in 2022.

During his 16-year-long career in the T20 competition, Karthik has featured in 257 matches, aggregating 4842 runs including 22 half-centuries.

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