'DK had a season that is probably below his standard' - Sanjay Bangar reflects on wicketkeeper's disastrous IPL 2023

Dinesh Karthik had another failure in IPL 2023 as he got dismissed for a golden duck against Gujarat Titans on Sunday, May 21 at M.Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru. Notably, he set the record for most ducks registered by a batter in the history of IPL having the ignominy of 17 ducks to his name. The wicketkeeper-batter had a completely contrasting season from 2022 where he scored 330 runs at a strike rate of 183.33.

Karthik’s poor form was one of the reasons for RCB getting knocked out in the league stage of the tournament. Reflecting on Karthik’s performance, head coach Sanjay Bangar said that the team had defined a role for the wicketkeeper-batter but he couldn’t click this season.

"We tried to define the role for him. We made sure that he was walking in at the moments or in the phases where his strengths could have been maximised. And he had an outstanding season [last year]. So I don't think that his efforts or his preparation or the role clarity that we gave was different last season. It's just that it didn't click this season," Bangar said after the defeat during the post-match press conference as quoted by India Today.

Bangar further said that if Karthik had clicked in a couple of games and would’ve added 15-20 runs, it could have made the difference for the RCB. He added that the youngsters should’ve also been a bit more consistent.

“DK had a season that is probably below his standard, if he had clicked in a couple of games that would have meant we would have added 15-20 runs more in the games that were the crunch ones and those runs could have been the difference in winning and losing a game. And you have to be patient with the young players, that's something most teams agree to and you have to invest time. Mahipal had his share of innings but he should have been a little more consistent,” he added.

Karthik scored 140 runs in 13 innings

Notably, Karthik scored 140 runs in IPL 2023 in 13 innings at an average of 11.66 and a strike rate of 134.61 as the pressure to do the bulk of the scoring fell on the shoulders of Faf du Plessis, Virat Kohli, and Glenn Maxwell. As a result, RCB got knocked out of the tournament after their loss to GT by six wickets. After being put in to bat first, RCB posted 197/5 riding on Virat Kohli’s second consecutive hundred (101* off 61).

In reply, GT chased down the target in 19.1 overs courtesy of a magnificent hundred by Shubman Gill (104* off 52) and ended RCB’s campaign.