Dinesh Karthik is set to join the Paarl Royals for the SA20 2025, making him the first Indian player to compete in this tournament in South Africa. Earlier in the year, Karthik stopped playing for the Indian cricket team after being part of the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in the Indian Premier League (IPL). The 39-year-old was signed by the Royals because Jos Buttler said he wouldn’t be coming back for the next season.
Before this, it was said that Karthik would be the new ambassador for the SA20, along with former South African player AB de Villiers. Karthik, who played his last game for India in the T20 World Cup 2022 in Australia, also became the batting coach and mentor for RCB starting from the next IPL season.
In 401 T20 games, Karthik has made 7407 runs with an average of 27.13 and a strike-rate of 136.96, including 34 half-century scores.
Regarding Jos Buttler, he mentioned that he chose to leave the SA20 to concentrate on playing for his national team, England.
“Hello everyone, this is Jos Buttler speaking. I’m addressing all the fans of Paarl Royals. I’m sad to say that I won’t be participating in the SA20 this year. My attention will be on the upcoming England matches. It’s unfortunate that I won’t be returning to the competition,” Buttler stated.
The Paarl Royals didn’t perform very well in the last season. They ended up in third place, winning five games and losing five out of ten. After that, they were defeated by the Jo’burg Super Kings in the Eliminator round and were eliminated from the tournament.
Buttler was a valuable player for the team, as he was their highest run-scorer, making 408 runs in 11 games, with a top score of 70 not out.
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