'You might be talking to the wrong person, bro': Karthik recalls chat with Kohli regarding RCB during 2021 England tour
Dinesh Karthik has recalled a chat with Virat Kohli during India's tour of England in 2021.
The Royal Challengers Bangalore will begin their campaign in the 2022 Indian Premier League against Punjab Kings on March 27. Last week, the RCB confirmed the appointment of Faf du Plessis as their new captain ahead of the beginning of the 2022 edition. The franchise had bought the South African in the mega auction preceding the tournament for ₹7 crore, beating his former franchise Chennai Super Kings and Delhi Capitals in the race for his signature.
The RCB had also bought Indian wicketkeeper-batter Dinesh Karthik in the auction and there were significant speculations over the next captain of the team in the build-up to the ‘RCB Unbox’ event, that took place on March 12. In addition to Faf and Karthik, Glenn Maxwell was also among the frontrunners for the captaincy role in the franchise.
In a conversation with Danish Sait for the RCB, Karthik spoke in detail about the prospect of playing under Faf as captain, and also recalled his chat with Virat Kohli during India's tour of England, where he had “slipped” in a request to be considered for the RCB!
When Danish Sait asked Karthik if he had indeed talked to Virat about the same, Karthik said, "Yeah, I slipped it into him and he said, "you might be talking to the wrong person, bro!"
Kohli had announced his decision to step down from RCB's captaincy ahead of the second phase of the 2021 edition in the UAE. Talking about Faf du Plessis, Karthik said that the South African is “tactically astute” and his leadership remains “second-to-none.”
“As a player, he is somebody who has maximised his potential and that's always a good sign for a leader, beacuse they will have a lot empathy, they will understand what a cricketer might be going through. That's very important of a leader. I've also played against him,” said Karthik.
“When he was a leader of South Africa, I've seen that he's tactically very astute. He's somebody who knows his game very well. In IPL, at the end of the day, you need tactically very good captain. I think he is second-to-none. Leadership is about handling people and everybody will vouch for the fact that he's a terrific guy.”
