The former T20 World Cup winner of the Indian cricket team, Dinesh Karthik, has been named the mentor and the batting coach of the Men’s The Hundred team, London Spirit, in what is his first support-staff role with a franchise outside the Indian Premier League. Karthik recently won the IPL 2025 with the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) for the very first time.

Karthik is a prominent broadcaster and commentator who had a similar role with the RCB side during the IPL 2026 after finishing his career in the IPL in 2024. He is also an active cricketer and is currently playing the International League T20 for the Sharjah Warriorz in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

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“It's a pleasure to welcome DK to London Spirit. He is a truly original thinker in our game, and his vast experience in short-format and franchise cricket will be invaluable to us. He's also great fun to work with and brings an infectious energy and enthusiasm to everything he does.” The Spirit director of cricket, Mo Bobat, expressed in a statement.

Dinesh Karthik named mentor and batting coach of London Spirits for The Hundred 2026

It hasn’t been a great event for the Spirits, who haven’t made it into the title round of the five-season-old The Hundred. But Karthik’s presence could end up being the turning point as they signed some exciting players- David Warner and Kane Williamson- in the last season.

“What an exciting time to be joining London Spirit. When I heard about the plans and the ambitions of Mo, MCC, and the Tech Titans, I was really enthusiastic to join. To spend the English summer working at Lord's is truly a dream come true. It is the ground where I made my debut for India, and I played my last Test match - Lord's is very close to my heart.” Karthik reckoned.

The Chennai-born has been a veteran of 414 T20s with 7554 runs in 366 innings at an average of 26.88 and a strike rate of 136.52, thanks to 35 half-centuries at the best score of unbeaten 97 runs.