Here's how heartbroken Dinesh Karthik found true love in Deepika Pallikal

Dinesh Karthik is a veteran Indian cricketer, having made his debut in 2004. He currently plays for Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) and had been leading the side since 2018. He married Indian squash player Deepika Pallikal in 2015.

Indian wicketkeeper-batsman Dinesh Karthik is one of the veterans and top-rated ones. While he continues to make an impact for both India and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the Indian Premier League (IPL), it is his personal life that has always enchanted fans.

For starters, Karthik is married to Deepika Pallikal since 2015. Deepika happens to be a squash player for India, having represented the nation in several competitive tournaments and winning medals, including a gold.

Although he might have found true love in Deepika, it was not the ideal way he would have wanted to. Consequently, we take a look at his love story and how it all began.

The heartbreak: In case one does not know, Deepika happens to be Karthik's second wife, as he was previously married to Nikita. Following his first marriage in 2007, everything was going good, until a couple of years later, it was revealed that Nikita was having an affair with his teammate Murali Vijay. Consequently, he had to divorce her by 2012, while Nikita went on to marry Vijay, leaving Karthik heartbroken and scrambled in pieces.

First meeting with Deepika: While he was nursing through the tough time, he met Deepika in a gym, as both went to the same gym for their regular workout sessions. Although Deepika did not like cricketers for their hype and fame, her misconception cleared after meeting him. "In fact, the first time we met was at a marathon some five years ago. After that, we met at the gym and, if I remember, I left for practice without even saying bye to him. Slowly, we got to know each other," she had once said.

From friends to lovers: Brushing her misconception aside, Deepika found Karthik to be a humble man. While they soon became friends, it took some time to fall in love. Although Karthik had requested her on quite a few occasions to meet, she denied it. "It was February 2013, and I had just won a tournament in Canada, while Dinesh was playing domestic cricket in India. I went to Leeds (England) to train for a week, and I found him there, coming all the way to see me. That was when I fell for him, realising not many would do something like that. He used to watch me train at the academy and even tried his hand at squash. He played much better than I thought," Deepika had told.

Accompanying in matches: It is from there, they were seen quite often. Deepika also attended Karthik to the stadiums for his games, even in the IPL. Although they did not make their relationship public at the time, love was undoubtedly brewing strong between the two.

The proposal: It was soon within a year that Karthik decided to propose Deepika. Although she accepted the proposal, she was sceptical about things moving too fast, as she wanted to wait for some time before getting hitched. Nonetheless, they made their relationship official by then. Also, their families took some time to make peace with the fact that Karthik was Hindu, while Deepika was Christian. "I agree things have moved really fast, but it has happened for our good. Both of us have busy careers ahead, and we wanted to formalise our relationship with the engagement," she had noted.

Engagement to marriage: It was in 2015 when Deepika finally decided to get married to Karthik, as their families, too, endured to it. Both had their pre-wedding functions, including mehendi and sangeet. They got married in August, in a private ceremony, as both had their friends and guests invited, from overseas as well. The wedding was held in both traditional Hindu and Christian style.

Love forever to happily ever after: Following the wedding, both are leading a happy married life, as Karthik seems to have finally moved on from his unhappy first marriage. Furthermore, it was never really an issue for Deepika, who always found Karthik a happy to go family guy. Nonetheless, both are yet to have their first child together.