When will Dinesh Karthik make his SA20 debut?

Dinesh Karthik retired from international and Indian cricket in 2024.

Dinesh Karthik has become the first Indian player to be part of the SA20 competition. The 39-year-old former India keeper was roped in by Paarl Royals as an overseas player last year ahead of the SA20 2025 auction.

The SA20 2025 season kicked off on January 9, Thursday, in Gqeberha, where two-time champions (and the defending champions) Sunrisers Eastern Cape suffered a massive defeat by 97 runs against MI Cape Town.

Friday will also see one game and there are two matches scheduled for Saturday.

Coming back to Karthik, the Tamil Nadu cricketer became eligible to play in SA20 and other overseas leagues after he announced his retirement from “representative cricket” in June 2024, following the conclusion of the Indian Premier League (IPL).

Karthik played 180 international matches for India and 257 IPL matches for six different teams across the 17 editions of the competition. Karthik is one of just seven cricketers to have featured in every edition of the IPL till 2024. In fact, he missed only two matches in his IPL career.

In his IPL career, Karthik scored 4816 runs at an average of 26, striking at 135 and hit 22 half centuries. As a keeper, Karthik was involved in 172 dismissals and affected 36 stumpings, only behind MS Dhoni on both lists.

By stepping away from cricket in India under BCCI’s purview, Karthik became eligible to ply his trade in T20 leagues outside the country. His first overseas T20 league will be the SA20 2025.

When will Dinesh Karthik make his SA20 debut?

Dinesh Karthik is part of the Paarl Royals squad for SA20 2025. Paarl’s first match of the season is on January 10, Saturday, against defending champions Sunrisers Eastern Cape at Boland Park in Paarl. Karthik could make his SA20 debut on Saturday. The match is scheduled to get underway at 4.30 PM IST / 11:00 AM GMT.

“Dinesh has served as one of the modern day greats for India in white ball cricket, and his wealth of experience will contribute to the making of our side for Season 3,” Kumar Sangakkara, Royals’ director of cricket, said. 

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