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4-time Commonwealth Games medallist Dipika Pallikal lauded her husband Dinesh Karthik for not giving up during tough times in his career. Back in 2015, the athletes married each other and have flourished since then in their respective areas of expertise. Even as Dipika won medals at the CWG, Asian Games and World Championships, Karthik faced quite a lot of ups and downs in his career.
Making his international debut back in 2004, Karthik could never cement his place in the Indian team with MS Dhoni being India’s first-choice wicketkeeper. However, instead of throwing in the towel, Karthik made a comeback and last played in the T20 World Cup 2022 on Australian soil.
The 32-year-old Dipika said that had he been in Karthik’s place, she would have succumbed to the pressure.
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‘Never-give-up attitude’
“I think when things are meant to be, they happen. When we met in 2013, it was very fast we knew that we wanted to spend our lives with each other and I am guessing everything clicked,” Dipika said in a video on RCB’s social media.
“One of the things I have really learned from him is that if he doesn’t do well, he is dropped from the team, it’s just two or three days when he is in a lull, and then he is back on his feet, thinking about what to do next.
“I feel that if anyone else was in that position, a lot of people would have given up long back. Even me, I am an athlete, seeing him in different positions in his career, if I was him, I would definitely have given up. But I think the do-or-die or never-give-up attitude has always been there,” Dipika said.
‘Abhishek Nayar played a big role’
Dipika said that Karthik tried to add new dimensions to his game over the years to keep up with the rigours of the fast-moving game. She also thanked former cricketer Abhishek Nayar for helping Karthik storm through the tumultuous times in his career.
“There’s been different DK’s. I feel over the last 10 years that we’ve been together. I think every two years, he tries to re-invent himself. And I feel like, as a wife also, I see that difference in him. Over the last four to five years, he has really enjoyed the sport, the time when he met Abhishek Nayar. Nayar played a big role, not just in his career, but building him as a person as well.”
‘Not going to be easy’
Karthik played for a lot of teams in his Indian Premier League (IPL) career, but Dipika felt that it was at RCB that he got the right exposure to play with freedom. She said that Karthik is happy with his achievements, but also admitted that moving away from the game would not be easy for the 38-year-old.
“The first year with RCB opened up a lot of doors for him, the role he had got. This is his happy place. He has got all the right people around him,” Dipika said.
“At the stage where DK is now, he is very content with what he has done, what he has achieved. That’s the most important thing about any athlete. It’s not going to be easy moving away from the game because this is all he has done all his life. But he is a person that, as long as he is content, he is ready to move on in life. So, he has done well for himself and his family, and he just has to be proud of it,” Dipika added.
In his international career, Karthik played 26 Tests, 94 ODIs and 60 T20Is from 2004 to 2022. He also moved away from the IPL, being in the top 10 of the leading run-scorers. In 257 matches, the wicketkeeper scored 4842 runs at an average of 26.31 with 22 half-centuries to his name.
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