Bengaluru: Having made his first-class debut as a 20-year-old against giants Mumbai at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in December 2013, Karnataka leg-spinner Shreyas Gopal has carved out a career relishing on the domestic grind.
However, the 33-year-old “definitely” did not have the slightest of clues that he would end up playing 100 first-class matches when he first started out, trying to make a name for himself in a stacked Karnataka side that won trophies for fun.
“Definitely not, but everyone dreams of playing for the country, playing 100 first-class games,” South Zone’s Shreyas said after day one of the Duleep Trophy final against East, his 100th FC game.
“It’s a very special achievement and I’m very grateful for this opportunity. But if you ask me 12-13 years back, would I have thought of it? No. At that time, the dream was to still play Ranji Trophy and seal my spot over there. So, I’m very happy about this.”
Shreyas delivered a powerhouse performance last season, finishing as Ranji Trophy’s third-highest wicket-taker with 48 scalps at an average of 23.14, and has claimed 305 wickets at 28.25 with two 10-fors and 10 five-fors in his career.
The one thing that has driven him towards success is wanting to “make a point” that leg-spinners can also have successful red-ball careers.
“It’s been good, the last 12-24 months with both bat and ball. I put in a lot of work, to be honest, especially on the bowling (front). I was told that there are not too many leg-spinners who have played upwards of 50 games.
“I wanted to make a point that that leg-spinners can play red-ball cricket and still be successful. I work on my bowling a lot for weeks, months and years.”
With the bat, Shreyas has 21 fifties and six hundreds, and has time and again proven to be Karnataka’s crisis man scoring crucial runs down the order.
“It’s definitely not easy being a leg-spinner to be bowling 25 overs and then come out in the middle-order and try to make some runs. So that’s always challenging, but that’s what we’re here for. And that’s the thrill of Test cricket and five-day cricket.”