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Kolkata Knight Riders' Dinesh Karthik recently opened up on how dearly he has wanted to play for his home franchise Chennai Super Kings over the years. The wicketkeeper-batsman was bought by KKR for Rs 7.4 crore in the auction and was even made the skipper of the Kolkata-based franchise.
This will be Karthik's sixth IPL franchise in the tournament's 10-year history. However, he has never had the chance to represent his local side and it looks highly unlikely that he'd be presented with a chance to play for CSK in the near future now that KKR have appointed him as the captain.
"Heart of hearts, I thought I’ll be playing for CSK from the very first year. It’s been 10 years and it has never happened. The dream is getting smaller by the day. I don’t know if I’ll ever play for CSK. I have been born and brought up in the city and would have loved to play for the Chennai team," Karthik told The Hindu.
"But today, I have got the opportunity to lead an IPL team which is a big honour and I’d like to do justice to that. I think Chennai, Bengaluru, Kolkata and Mumbai have very loyal fans. That’s the beauty of franchise cricket. Chennai has always been an educated cricketing crowd and the way CSK has performed over the years has helped develop this massive fan base," he added.
The 32-year-old later revealed that he 'wants captaincy' at this point in his career.
"I’m in a space where I want captaincy. I have done it at various levels but this is my first in the IPL and I’m looking forward to it."
Karthik stole the limelight recently with a last-ball match-winning six against Bangladesh in the Nidahas Trophy final and KKR fans would hope to see more of the same come 8th April when they line up against RCB.
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