Dinesh Karthik credits KKR assistant coach Abhishek Nayar for reviving his career

Many fans were surprised when IPL franchise Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) opted to go with Dinesh Karthik as captain ahead of the 2018 IPL season, which saw Gautam Gambhir heading back to the Delhi Capitals. The Tamil Nadu-born cricketer has been in and out of the Indian senior team all throughout his career, having played second fiddle to MS Dhoni for the most part of his career. Amid the current India lockdown, Dinesh Karthik spoke about KKR's assistant coach and close friend Abhishek Nayar in a recent interview.

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Dinesh Karthik lauds KKR coach Abhishek Nayar, wishes that he met him '10-12 years ago'

In a recent interview with reputed cricket analyst Harsha Bhogle on Cricbuzz, Dinesh Karthik heaped praise on the Mumbai-born KKR assistant coach Abhishek Nayar. Dinesh Karthik confessed his wish of meeting Nayar 10-12 years ago since it was under his individual mentorship that he realised about the journey of life and how to go about it, which took care of his cricketing career as part of the process. Karthik claims to be a much happier person now after Nayar made him stay at his Powai house a few years ago as part of a mental and physical training camp of sorts to get the wicketkeeper-batsman out of his comfort zone to revive his career.

In fact, that experience made Dinesh Karthik recommend the KKR team management to pick Nayar as the team's assistant coach, once he was named the franchise's captain. Dinesh Karthik was slated to lead KKR again in the 2020 IPL season before it was postponed until further notice due to the COVID-19 pandemic and India lockdown situation earlier this month.

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