Dinesh Karthik Named Captain of Kolkata Knight Riders for IPL 2018

Dinesh Karthik has been named Captain of Kolkata Knight Riders for Vivo Indian Premier League 2018, the franchise announced on Sunday(March 4). Dinesh Karthik was Picked by Knight Riders in INR 7.4 Crore. He has been one of the finest Players in Indian Premier League over the years. He was among the top players to lead Knight Riders after Franchise decided not to Pick Gautam Gambhir, who led Knight Riders in last six seasons.

Karthik has experience of captaincy at domestic level. He led Tamil Nadu in Vijay Hazare Trophy in 2009-10 and won the Tournament. He was also the Captain of India red that won the Duleep Trophy last year.



"It is an honour to represent Kolkata Knight Riders, one of the most successful franchise in IPL and I look forward to this new challenge. I am excited about the squad that has been assembled, which has a great combination of experience and youth. I will do my best to represent brand KKR and millions of KKR," Dinesh Karthik said after appointed Captain.

"I think the thing that stood out is that Karthik is at the age now in his career where he has got the best years of his career in front of him," assistant Coach Simon Catch said.

"He has been involved in the IPL for 10 years. He has got a fantastic domestic record captaining Tamil Nadu in T20 tournament there. I think he has got 72% win-rate which is outstanding as a T20 skipper. And obviously, the other thing about him is that he's got a lot of respect from the players given what he's achieved on the field and what he's achieved captain domestically. He knows the condition extremely well. He knows all the overseas players inside out having played so well in last 10 years and this is the great time to give that opportunity to him and see what he can do," he said.

Dinesh Karthik among the top Indian players who played in the IPL for more than two teams. In his previous season of IPL, he played for Gujrat Lions and scored 361 runs at an impressive average of 36.1. In the 6th season of IPL Karthik played a key role in winning the Title for Mumbai Indians by scoring 510 runs. He has also played for Delhi Daredevils, Royal Challenger Bangalore, and Kings XI Punjab. In his 152 IPL matches, he scored 2903 runs at a strike Rate of 125.94 and grabbed 114 dismissals behind the stumps.