Dinesh Karthik during a practice session.
| Image:
PTI
The Tamil Nadu team’s hearts were left broken after they faltered during the Ranji Trophy knockouts stage. TN was at a crucial stage and was aiming for the final, but their hopes were shattered after an underwhelming display. The Mumbai team took advantage of the situation and put up a target that the team failed to achieve in both innings. But coach Sulakshan Kulkarni’s remark after the match is attracting criticism as he vehemently blamed the loss on the team captain. It led to veteran wicketkeeper-batter Dinesh Karthik calling out the coach for his comments.
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Dinesh Karthik gets critical over TN coach throwing team skipper under the bus for Ranji knockouts loss
The comments made by Tamil Nadu coach Sulakshan Kulkarni over the team skipper, R Sai Kishore, have been making rounds over social media. Coach Kulkarni simply put the blame for the Ranji Trophy semifinal loss over the captain’s head, something several people have been critical about. Among them was Team India wicketkeeper-batter Dinesh Karthik as he called out Kulkarni for his remark over the TN skipper on social media platform X (Formerly Twitter).
“This is soo WRONG. This is so disappointing from the coach ..instead of backing the captain who has brought the team to the semis after 7 yrs and thinking it’s a start for good things to happen, the coach has absolutely thrown his captain and team under the bus,” Dinesh Karthik tweeted.
This is soo WRONG
This is so disappointing from the coach ..instead of backing the captain who has brought the team to the semis after 7 yrs and thinking it’s a start for good things to happen, the coach has absolutely thrown his captain and team under the bus
👎🏽👎🏽👎🏽👎🏽👎🏽 https://t.co/Ii61X7Ajqs
— DK (@DineshKarthik) March 5, 2024
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During the second semi-final of the Ranji Trophy 2024, Mumbai defeated Tamil Nadu by an innings and 70 runs. On the first day, Tamil Nadu won the toss and opted to bat first, but were bowled out for 146. They put a lot of effort into their ball fight, but Mumbai rallied to post 378 and take a commanding lead. In their second innings, Tamil Nadu was ultimately wiped out for 162 runs. Following the game, Kulkarni didn’t hesitate to criticize his captain, Sai Kishore, implying that the team’s semi-final defeat was caused by the latter’s choice to bat first.
“I always speak straightforward — we lost the match at 9 o’clock on day one. The moment I saw the wicket I exactly knew what we were going to get. Everything was set, we won the toss, as a coach, as a Mumbaikar, I know the conditions well. We should have bowled but the captain had some different instinct.”
He added that it is Sai Kishore who makes the ultimate decisions, and he could only present his feedback and input.