"Finisher Supreme": Twitterati wish Dinesh Karthik as Indian keeper-batter turns 37

Indian wicketkeeper-batter Dinesh Karthik turned 37 on Wednesday (June 1). On this special occasion, fans as well as Indian cricketers took to social media to wish 'DK' a happy birthday.

Karthik had an outstanding Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 campaign with the bat for the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB). Playing the role of finisher, he smashed 330 runs in 16 matches at a strike rate of 183.33. He won the 'Super Striker' award for the exploits during the season.

The keeper-batter’s impressive showing with the willow also earned him a Team India recall for the upcoming five-match T20 series against South Africa at home. He last represented India during the 2019 ODI World Cup semi-final against New Zealand in Manchester. His last T20I for India was also in the same year.

Here are some tweets from fans and cricketers, as well as his current and former IPL franchises, wishing 'DK' a very happy birthday.

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How Dinesh Karthik reacted to India comeback

Over the course of IPL 2022, the keeper-batter admitted at a post-match press conference that he was hopeful of making a comeback to the Indian team and wanted to do something special.

After news of his selection to the Indian team was confirmed, 'DK' described it as his "most special comeback." In a video shared on RCB’s official social media handles, he said:

“Very happy, very, very satisfying… must say that this has been probably my most special comeback, because a lot of people had given up on me. For me to come back and do what I did, practise the way I did with my coach (Abhishek) Nayar, things that have happened in the lead-up to the auction, and how I practised post that… a lot of credit also to (RCB head coach) Sanjay Bangar and (RCB director of cricket operations) Mike Hesson.”

Karthik has so far featured in 32 T20Is, scoring 399 runs at a strike rate of 143.52 with a best of 48.

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