Vijay Hazare Trophy 2024-25: Smaran’s heroics prove childhood coach Syed Zabiulla’s instincts right

Vijay Hazare Trophy 2024-25: Smaran’s heroics prove childhood coach Syed Zabiulla’s instincts right

“In the league stage, many will score runs. But the one who scores runs in the knockouts is the king.”

R. Smaran would have been reminded of his childhood coach Syed Zabiulla’s counsel from his days in junior cricket when he strode out on the big stage – the Vijay Hazare Trophy knockouts.

The 21-year-old, a diligent student, took his mentor’s words to heart, bailing Karnataka out with a gritty 76 in the semifinal against Haryana, and topping it with an incandescent century in the final against Vidarbha to snap the State’s title drought.

“He is a mixture of a stroke-maker and a hard-hitter. If he has to hang on, he will depend on his strokes. On the loose balls, he will show his hard-hitting skills,” Zabiulla remarked about his ward’s game. Smaran did exactly that, getting his eye in when Karnataka lost three early wickets in the final, before teeing off.

The dual nature of Smaran’s game reflects his demeanour. A ‘very hyper’ and ‘naughty’ kid, as Zabiulla recalls, Smaran always exuded exemplary patience. His steady rise through the age-group circuit and the subsequent wait for a senior team call-up attest to that virtue.

Interestingly, Smaran’s first tryst with the game was a consequence of his parents just wanting to keep him busy.

“He was very energetic, and his energy needed to be channeled somewhere meaningfully. We found a cricket academy nearby… From the age of 10, for the sake of keeping him busy, we put him in that academy,” his father Ravichandran recalls.

Though Smaran showed promise, Ravichandran, a mechanical engineer, wanted his son to follow in his footsteps.

“We wanted him to do engineering, so I wanted him to pursue science in 11th and 12th. We looked around for colleges that would help him support cricket and science, and then engineering. But then people discouraged us from pursuing science, because that takes a little bit of effort. Probably cricket and science may not go well,” he admits.

Ravichandran still wants his son, a commerce graduate, to complete his postgraduate education. “Sports in general, and cricket in particular, are very risky. In this country, you cannot entirely bank on it.”

But Zabiualla had pinned his hopes on Smaran long ago. “When he played Karnataka U-14, I knew that he is going to be the Karnataka middle-order bat going forward.”

Karnataka’s youngsters stepped up to deliver the State a much-awaited title, and chief selector J. Abhiram says Smaran is at the forefront of it.

“Smaran has impressed the most. We have seen him as a U-14 boy, and we really backed him. He got close to 700 [829] runs last year [in Col. CK Nayudu Trophy] and I am glad that he has done very well… Karnataka cricket is in very good hands now.”