Karthik appeared to be on his way to becoming a full-time commentator before having a successful season as a finisher with the Royal Challengers Bangalore, which led to his return to the Indian team. Karthik has returned to the commentary job for India’s current Test series against Australia.
While he may have left the Indian team after the 2022 T20 World Cup, Karthik has received praise for his commentary work since India’s March 2021 tour of England.
“I enjoyed commentary in the little stints that I did. I think I enjoyed speaking about the game, looking at it very analytically, at the same time trying to, you know, get something meaningful across to everybody who’s watching this sport. So, you know, I always tried to make sense out of a situation in my own way and tried to articulate it in the way I thought it was,” said Karthik about his commentary stints on the RCB podcast.
Karthik also revealed that MS Dhoni praised him. In previous years, the careers of the former India captain and Karthik have intersected in a variety of ways.
“And my biggest accolade came from the person that I least expected from — MS Dhoni. He called me and said: ‘I really enjoyed the commentary. Very, very good. Well done.’ I was like, Wow, thank you so much. So, that is big, you know, obviously, he watches a lot of this sport. And so and to hear him say that was really good. And I was happy that you enjoyed my commentary,” said Karthik.