After patiently waiting in the wings, KL Shrijith is finally centre-stage with the spotlight on him
After patiently waiting in the wings, KL Shrijith is finally centre-stage with the spotlight on him
After a round of applause and a few bear hugs from teammates, KL Shrijith sat in his chair, unfastened his cricket gear, and plugged in his earphones to unwind. His face showed no signs of joy or relief after what he had managed to pull off a few minutes back.
The 28-year-old had just played the knock of his life (so far) to help Karnataka complete the second-highest chase in Vijay Hazare Trophy (VHT) history in the side’s opening Group C match of the 2024 edition against Mumbai in Ahmedabad.
When Shreyas Iyer and Shivam Dube plundered 148 runs between them in just 65 balls to help Mumbai post a daunting 382, the task felt too burdensome for the youthful and inexperienced Karnataka batting line-up.
But, what transpired was a chasing masterclass with the three-match old Shrijith at the forefront.
“Since the innings break, the captain and the coach said we have the batting power to chase it down. Each of us sincerely believed that we could chase it down,” Shrijith told Sportstar at the end of the game.
“We were asked to go there and express ourselves, obviously take 5-10 balls to know how the wicket was playing and then go for our shots and look to chase it down,” he reflected.
Karnataka openers Nikin Jose and Mayank Agarwal, the senior batters in the lineup, gave the team the perfect start, hitting a flurry of boundaries in the first PowerPlay. When skipper Mayank fell for 47, the team had already sped to 106 runs within the 15-over mark. Then came Shrijith.
At first, he played second fiddle to debutant KV Aneesh, who had combined for a fifty-run partnership with Mayank and had a better idea of the nature of the pitch.
“When I went in to bat with Aneesh, we didn’t really think about the total we wanted to achieve. We were only trying to play the ball to its merit,” Shrijith said.
“We knew that there was nothing worrisome in the wicket. We were just thinking about rotating strike and getting the odd boundary,” he added.
After Aneesh was dismissed on 82, Karnataka rolled the dice by sending in Praveen Dubey after the next-in-line R.Smaran rolled his ankle on the field. The legspinner played a perfect second hand to Shrijith, rotating strike at will to keep the southpaw on strike before unleashing a few blows of his own as he brought up his half-century with the team in sight of the finish line.
“When Praveen came to bat, I just told him ‘Spend 5-10 balls in the middle and you’ll know where to get your runs’. I know his range of shots and I knew if we spend some time we could add some runs quickly so that it doesn’t pile up later,” the ‘keeper said.
There was constant support for Shrijith from the dugout too as he marshalled the chase for Karnataka. There were chants of ‘ Ninn aadu’ [play patiently] and ‘ angeye iru’ [stay there] from the Tamil contingent in the team as Shrijith waded through his innings.
‘ Aaru run pothum da’ [Six runs an over will suffice] came the instruction with ten overs to play as Shrijith brought out more shots following his maiden List A hundred.
“Once I reached that hundred all I was thinking about was finishing the game at the end. I didn’t want to lose my wicket and make them feel they could make a comeback,” the southpaw said.
Mumbai’s innings was characterised by a steady middle-over phase followed by some brute hitting at the death. With the power Karnataka’s lower order possessed in the form of Abhinav Manohar and Vyshak V, it would have made sense to take the game deep even if the required rate climbed up. But, this is where Shrijith displayed his game awareness aided by the calm head atop his shoulders.
“We do have the firepower to go at the end, but while chasing down a big total, you always look to chase it with two or three overs left and not leave it till the last minute,” the 28-year-old said.
“We never went intending to go all out. The wicket was such that if we could pierce the gap, the outfield was lightning fast and we ended up getting our boundaries.
“And, since the asking rate was seven and a half or close to eight, and we knew that one boundary in an over would do, and if you didn’t get it that over, we could probably make it up in another over,” he added.
The wicketkeeper-batter’s 101-ball match-winning sojourn was decked with 20 fours including umpteen flowing drives through the offside, a few wristy flicks and a couple of controlled pulls through the legside.
“That is my naturally preferred game. I’ve always been a player who pierces the gaps and runs hard between the wickets. Off late I’ve worked on my power-hitting, and that has been an added bonus,” Shrijith said.
Since last playing age-group cricket in 2017, Shrijith has been on the fringes of the Karnataka side, blessed with multiple wicketkeeping talents, never really breaking in.
“To be honest, in a team like Karnataka, the competition is very high irrespective of what role you have to play. Some people ended up getting that chance early by playing well at the right time, but I always knew my time would come at some point,” the 28-year-old said.
Despite making his Syed Mushtaq Ali debut in early 2021, he had to wait till 2023 to get into the 50-over side. Now, with back-to-back centuries in the Ranji Trophy and the VHT and a chance to rub shoulders with the best at Indian Premier League side Mumbai Indians next season, his time could finally be here.
