CPL 2019: Dinesh Karthik marks his presence in the Trinbago Knight Riders’ dressing room

India’s wicketkeeper-batsman Dinesh Karthik surprised one and all with his presence in Port of Spain, Trinidad. During the first game of the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) 2019, he marked his presence at the Queen’s Park Oval. However, what was more surprising is that he was spotted in the dressing room of the team alongside Brendon McCullum.

Both the Trinbago Knight Riders and the Kolkata Knight Riders are owned by the same owners. Furthermore, Brendon McCullum has been recently appointed as the head coach of the KKR team. Amidst all this, Karthik’s presence in the dressing room is quite an interesting scene.

What is Dinesh Karthik doing out there?

While the reason for his presence out there is not known as yet, he is clearly not taking part in the CPL 2019. Except for Yuvraj Singh, no one else was given the nod by the BCCI to take part in overseas cricket leagues so far. It could be that Dinesh Karthik is there to help the other players with their preparations and share some valuable insights with them. However, that doesn’t seem really likely given that the team has already got an efficient coaching staff.

The best possible reason to justify DK’s presence is that he wanted to spend some time with Brendon McCullum. Given that there will be a change of coaching style, the Tamil Nadu cricketer might have wanted to familiarise how the former New Zealand skipper went about his business. Also, they might have found some time to discuss the strategies ahead of the next season. With the auction coming up soon, Karthik might have wanted to have a close look at some of the West Indies players.

However, all these are speculations and the exact reason isn’t known yet. The Knight Riders won the first game of the season. In a close contest, they managed to defeat St Kitts and Nevis Patriots by 11 runs. For his all-rounder performance with the bat and the ball, Jimmy Neesham was named the Man of the Match. He scored 33 runs off 30 balls with the bat. With the ball in hand, he picked up three crucial wickets.

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