IPL 2019: The 'Impact Player' for each franchise

Kolkata Knight Riders - Dinesh Karthik

While Dinesh Karthik has just recently been dropped from India's ODI side, his stock as a T20 player continues to move up and up, and he will be crucial in the Kolkata Knight Riders' IPL campaign this year. Over the past year, Karthik has transformed himself into one of world cricket's finest finishers, particularly in the T20 format.

Since the start of 2018, in T20 internationals for India, Karthik has scored 219 runs in 12 innings at an average of 73.0 and a strike rate of 156.4, and has been dismissed only thrice in this period. These numbers are earth-shattering for a finisher and many have made comparisons of Karthik's newfound finishing ability to the finishing ability MS Dhoni possessed in his prime. The KKR captain, who is still said to be in the scheme of things for the World Cup later this year, will be extremely keen to make a mark in the IPL and further showcase his finishing abilities.