Ranji Trophy: Dinesh Karthik Reacts After Tamil Nadu Coach Blames Captain For Defeat In Semis Against Mumbai

Former Indian wicketkeeper-batsman turned commentator, Dinesh Karthik, on Tuesday reacted to Tamil Nadu's Ranji Trophy team coach Sulakshan Kulkarni's comments. Kulkarni, who had blamed Tamil Nadu captain Sai Kishore for the team's defeat in the semi-final match against Mumbai, said he knew the result right after the toss. "He shouldn't have opted to bat first", Kulkarni said.

Reacting to Kulkarni's demotivating comments for a brilliant young cricketer, Dinesh Karthik said "This is so disappointing". He also termed the coach's bashing as throwing the state captain under a bus.

"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 said.

Earlier, coach Sulakshan Kulkarni took to social media platform to criticise the captain. He said: "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.

However, the coach made it clear that ultimately Sai Kishore is the boss, he is leading the team, and he can only give inputs and experienced advice against sides like Mumbai and the kind of wickets they offer to play.

Kulkarni also added that he hails from Mumbai, so understands what Mumbaikars think.

Tamil Nadu lost the semi-final match against Mumbai by a huge margin of an innings and 70 runs.