After sprucing up his mental game, Shreyas raring to deliver for Karnataka

After turning out for Kerala in 2023-24, the 31-year-old leg-spinning all-rounder is back at his home state, eager to help Karnataka taste the Ranji Trophy success that has remained elusive since 2014-15.

In the 2022-23 First Class season, he took 15 wickets and scored 360 runs at an average of 45. | Photo Credit: N. SUDARSHAN

Karnataka is blessed with so much talent that not many who leave the state in search of greener pastures are ever welcomed back. Shreyas Gopal is one of those rare cricketers who has bucked the trend.

After turning out for Kerala in 2023-24, the 31-year-old leg-spinning all-rounder is back at his home state, eager to help Karnataka taste the Ranji Trophy success that has remained elusive since 2014-15.

“I know that not many people have been called back in the past. So, I consider myself lucky to have got that opportunity,” Shreyas told Sportstar on the sidelines of Karnataka’s Ranji opener against Madhya Pradesh here. “It is important that I make the most of it. I’ve come here to bowl and bat really well.”

In the 2022-23 First Class season, there was a feeling that Shreyas had become more of a batter than a bowler. In eight matches, he took 15 wickets but scored 360 runs at an average of 45. While batting remains important, Shreyas has spent the last 12 months shoring up his mental strength and be more aggressive as a bowler.

“Maybe two years back, I was bowling well with the white ball but not as well with the red,” he said. “The margin of error with the red ball is so little. So, I knew I had to fine-tune that a little bit.

“I’m glad that I can [now] bowl say 20 overs a day. I have not had those long [spells] before, probably because I was bowling the odd loose ball. When you are very confident of your skill, you can also tap into a fielding change, be a little bit intimidating against the batter. Those things come when you’re very confident in your skill and I’m very confident.”

Karnataka will hope that this belief drives Shreyas to the standards he set in 2018-19 when he took 32 wickets and scored 524 runs from 10 First Class games. As a senior pro, there is also the responsibility of shepherding two fledgling spinners in Hardik Raj and Mohsin Khan.

“I would love to get 30-35 wickets, if not more. And 500 plus runs... that would be a great target to have,” he said. “But I don’t want to tell myself something that puts pressure. If I can tell myself that I want to bowl better than what I bowl everyday, even by 1%, I think I’ll be hitting the targets I have set.”