"Hopefully title next year" - Fans react as RCB name Dinesh Karthik as batting coach and mentor for IPL 2025

Three-time IPL finalists Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) have named Dinesh Karthik as their new batting coach and mentor for the 2025 season. Karthik was a part of the RCB squad as a wicketkeeper-batter in the last three IPL seasons.

After IPL 2024, Dinesh Karthik announced retirement from the league. Since he has been working as an English commentator for ICC, BCCI and Sky Sports, many fans felt that the former Indian wicketkeeper would join the IPL commentary panel next year.

However, Royal Challengers Bengaluru have decided to extend their association with Dinesh Karthik by naming him as their batting coach and mentor. Earlier today, RCB made the announcement with the following post on X:

"Welcome our keeper in every sense, 𝗗𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀𝗵 𝗞𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗸, back into RCB in an all new avatar. DK will be the 𝗕𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗖𝗼𝗮𝗰𝗵 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗠𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗼𝗿 of RCB Men’s team! You can take the man out of cricket but not cricket out of the man! Shower him with all the love, 12th Man Army!"

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Reacting to the announcement from RCB, a fan lauded the franchise and hoped that the team will finally become champions in IPL 2025 under Karthik's guidance.

"Great initiative from RCB. Hopefully title next year @DineshKarthik All the very best," he wrote.

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Another fan wanted RCB to assign one more role to Karthik. He wanted Karthik to be the scouting head because of his ability to find new talents.

"Announce him as a scouting head," the fan tweeted.

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CSK fan makes a request to his franchise after seeing RCB assign Dinesh Karthik a role in coaching staff

Fans of other IPL teams reacted to the announcement from RCB as well. A Chennai Super Kings fan wrote on X that the franchise should think about giving a role to Suresh Raina now.

"Just 3yrs in their franchise. they given a Batting Coach & Mentor role. What are you doing folks @ChennaiIPL with @ImRaina. Atleast asst fielding coach or Smthing nxt yr," the CSK fan tweeted.

Another IPL fan made a bold prediction for the RCB Unbox Event of 2025 and said that Karthik will be the next Hall of Famer of the franchise.

"2025 RCB unbox Hall of famer," the fan wrote on X.

RCB fans have welcomed the decision from the franchise. It will be interesting to see how Dinesh Karthik performs in his first season as batting coach and mentor.

About the author

Vinay has been working as a cricket journalist at Sportskeeda since 2018. A smart writer, he has a total previous work experience of 8 years working for the likes of Swag Cricket and Fambeat, and believes in thoroughly verifying each and every piece of information before writing any article. His meticulous methods have led him to amass a significant readership of close to 30 million at Sportskeeda, along with winning several awards such as Machine Writer, Top Earning Affiliate, and Perfectionist Writer in his Sportskeeda journey so far.

Vinay’s love for cricket blossomed when playing the sport during school days. Today, he is a staunch supporter of his home IPL side Gujarat Titans and is also the ambassador of franchise’s initiative Race with the Titans. Unsurprisingly, his all-time favorite cricketers also feature from his favorite IPL franchise - Rashid Khan, Matthew Wade, Sai Sudharsan and Shubman Gill.

When not writing, Vinay likes to play cricket and hang out with his friends. Being an industry veteran, his influence goes beyond the sport of cricket and has interviewed several Kabaddi stars such as Mohammad Nabibakhsh, Daniel Odhiambo, Vijay Malik, and Girish Ernak as well. He also is a fan of professional wrestling.

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Edited by Sudeshna Banerjee