IPL 2023: It just didn’t click, it wasn’t meant to be: Sanjay Bangar on Karthik’s poor season

Royal Challengers Bangalore head coach Sanjay Bangar has shed light on Dinesh Karthik’s disappointing season in IPL 2023. Karthik was dismissed for a golden duck, his 17th in the IPL, when he gloved the ball while trying to play the pull shot against Yash Dayal in the 15th over against Gujarat Titans at the M.Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru on Sunday.

The dismissal brought the end to Karthik’s dismal show in IPL 2023 as he could only manage 140 runs in 13 matches at an average of 11.67 and a strike rate of 134.61.

In fact, Karthik was in dream form in IPL 2022 as he had scored 330 runs in IPL 2022 at a blistering strike rate of 183.83 and that performance had helped him break into India’s T20 team as a designated finisher. However, IPL 2023 was a contrasting season for the veteran wicket-keeper bat as he failed to deliver for RCB.

“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 on Sunday (May 21).

The former Indian all-rounder added that Dinesh Karthik would be disappointed after a poor showing in IPL 2023.

“More than anybody, if there’s one guy who would be disappointed the most, it’s Dinesh. Because he prides himself as a professional and wants to contribute to the team’s cause. So we could see it in him. Even till today’s game, we were hoping that he would come good. But that wasn’t meant to be. So we live and we learn and move ahead.”

Meanwhile, Royal Challengers Bangalore failed to come up with a collective effort with the bat in IPL 2023 and it led to their elimination. Faf du Plessis, Virat Kohli, and Glenn Maxwell scored the bulk of the runs but they failed to receive support from Mahipal Lomror, Anuj Rawat, Shahbaz Ahmed, and Dinesh Karthik.

Kohli scored a scintillating century against GT but his heroics went in vain as Shubman Gill scored 104 runs to help his team get over the line.