Karthik was picked by Delhi Daredevils (now Capitals) in the IPL 2008 auction.
Veteran India batter-keeper Dinesh Karthik shared an anecdote about his ‘silly assumption’ in the IPL 2008 auction regarding the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) franchise. Karthik is one of the few cricketers to have played in all seasons of IPL, starting from 2008.
He is currently part of the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) side in IPL 2024 and has played for Mumbai Indians (MI) and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), amongst other franchises, in his IPL career.
During an appearance on R Ashwin’s YouTube channel segment ‘Kutti Stories with Ash’, Karthik revealed that he had a 'silly assumption' that he was going to be picked by CSK in the very first IPL auction.
"When the auction was happening,. No matter what I say, this makes headlines. I assumed Chennai was going to pick me because I was from Chennai. I was just making that silly assumption," said Karthik.
Karthik said the reason for his assumption was VB Chandrashekhar, who was then part of the CSK camp. Karthik said that Chandrashekar had selected him for Tamil Nadu Ranji team and India A team. He even made his India debut during his tenure and felt that Chandrasekhar had a soft corner for him and that made him feel he would be part of CSK.
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"He always had a soft corner for me. So I thought, V.B. Chandrasekhar is there; he is going to pick me," said Karthik.
Karthik revealed that when the auction for the IPL 2008 was happening, he was in Australia with the Indian team and watched the auction in Melbourne. However, when he saw that CSK went for MS Dhoni in the auction, he knew he was not going to be part of the yellow franchise.
"So when he got picked for CSK, I realised I was not going to be a part of that team. Because both of us were part of the Indian team and I'm always an understudy, I knew they wouldn't be picking me in the same team. So that's when I realised, ok, I'm not going to be a part of CSK," said Karthik.
Karthik was picked by Delhi Capitals (then Daredevils) in the IPL 2008 auction. He was close to being picked up by CSK in the IPL 2022 auction as they engaged in a bidding war for him with RCB. However, Bengaluru were able to get him in the end.
(India Today inputs)