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A couple of weeks ago former England captain Nasser Hussain said that if Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) win the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025, their mentor and batting coach Dinesh Karthik will be 'unsufferable'. However, nearly a couple of weeks after RCB's maiden title win, former England captains Michael Atherton and Hussain were able to silence Karthik with a question about what he said to Virat Kohli in the IPL 2025 final during strategic timeout.
Kohli was batting on 35 off 29 balls before the strategic timeout. RCB had 111/3 on the board with Kohli and Liam Livingstone in the middle. Karthik walked out and had a conversation with Kohli. The RCB opener hit a four in the next over but ended up losing his wicket to Punjab Kings' (PBKS) Azmatullah Omarzai in the next over. He scored 43 runs from 35 balls.
Hussain and Atherton wanted to know what he said to Kohli during an animated chat at the Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad on June 3.
Here's how the conversation went -
"In that final, what I noticed was, during the strategic time-out, you spent a long time telling Virat Kohli what to do. He was at the crease, and you were there. I saw you, pointing at him. And I think he was out the very next over, after your five-minute lecture. Tell me what you told him there," Atherton asked on the Sky Sports podcast.
"This is probably the hardest question I have been asked on a podcast. I am trying to thing, without getting scarred for my life, I need to give the right answer. What did you think I was telling him, considering he got out in the next over?" Karthik answered with a question.
"Well, I don't know. I just saw what is this man telling one of the greatest batters that ever walked the earth. What can he possibly be telling him and then whatever he told him didn't work because he was out," Atherton described what he felt during the final.
"I think it's the first time ever that you don't have an answer. You are silent," Hussain said as he teased Karthik.
Karthik lauds Kohli, the 'champion'
Later, Karthik hailed Kohli who was their highest run-scorer in the season and third in the race of orange cap.
"If that man puts his mind to something, the way he adapts, understands situations, I am too small a person to even speak about him. He is an absolutely champion," Karthik added.
Kohli has been at the RCB since the inaugural edition in 2008 when joined as a teenager who guided India to Under-19 World Cup win in Malaysia. Kohli's patience paid off as he won the IPL trophy as a 36-year-old.
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