Krishnappa Gowtham who was part of the Rajasthan Royals franchise at the recently concluded IPL 2018, caught everyone’s attention with his powerful batting and economic bowling.
Krishnappa Gowtham – Journey so far…
Gowtham’s professional career began when he was picked for the under-15 zonal tournament in Bangalore where he emerged as the second-highest wicket-taker. He played his first Ranji Trophy game for Karnataka in November 2012, against Bengal, and picked up two wickets, both in the second innings.
In the 2016–17 Ranji Trophy season, Krishnappa Gowtham picked up two consecutive five-wicket hauls, against Delhi and Assam, helping his team win both the games. In the latter game, he returned his career-best figures of 7/108.
At IPL 2017 auction, Gowtham was bought by the Mumbai Indians, but due to big names already featuring in the MI camp, he didn’t get a chance to play a single game. He continued playing for Karnataka and made his list A debut in 2016-17 Vijay hazare Trophy on 25th february.
In 2017 he scored his maiden first class century playing for Karnataka.
Krishnappa Gowtham bagged by RR at record price
After being in the same form he was sold to Rajasthan Royals Rs 6.2 crore, 31 times his base price, on the second day of the IPL players’ auction in Bengaluru.
He proved his worth by performing better than Ben stokes and Jaydev Unadkat (two most expensive buys by Rajasthan Royals 12.5cr and 11.5cr respectively) and Rajasthan would surely love to retain this man next year.
Gowtham’s reaction when he was bought by Rajasthan Royals for whopping 6.2crs:
“My parents didn’t expect that I’d go for this amount or that,” Gowtham said. “They’ve always wanted me to play a good brand of cricket more than anything. And my brothers and friends, they’ve all supported me day in and day out, and contributed in some way or the other. Even my workplace. I’m employed with Vijaya Bank. They’ve given me time off whenever I’ve required it for training. They’ve always given me the liberty of practicing and not allowing me to worry about my financial security, so they’ve also been a part of this journey.”
Krishnappa Gowtham – Proves his worth
The karnataka bowling all-rounder proved his mettle whenever he got a chance in this IPL also. In the game against CSK, when Jos Buttler finished the game and provided his team the much needed 2 points and kept the hopes alive to qualify for the playoffs.
I feel Krishnappa Gowtham was the one, who smashed 13 off 4 and released all the pressure by hitting two gigantic sixes off David Willey in the penultimate over, It was a treat to watch an Indian player playing like this under pressure, It takes something to hit an international bowler towards the longest boundary of the ground.
The twist he provided captivated attention of the audience.
In their game against KXIP also, He proved to be the hero for his side, Krishnappa Gowtham emerged with impressive figures of 2/12 off his three overs, he struck twice to send the dangerous Chris Gayle (1) and Ravichandran Ashwin (0) packing to give Rajasthan Royals a much-needed 15-run win over Kings XI Punjab in their Indian Premier League (IPL) 2018 match at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur.
After dismissing Ashwin, who promoted himself up the order, Gowtham punched the air and said “boom!” in celebration.
He has done it before against MI also where he scored 33* off 11 and took his team over the line.
The 2018 IPL edition is surely provided some aggressive players like Pant, Iyer, Shaw and Gowtham the platform to book a place in team India. I feel they would definitely be included in the international T20 squad and BCCI should be eyeing to form a core team for upcoming 2019 World Cup in England.
