The unanimous choice was Murali Kartik, a veteran of five seasons in County cricket at that time. His performance in the following two years with ball and bat vindicated the Somerset management’s faith in him.
The just-concluded 2011 season was a remarkable one for Somerset, and Kartik played a stellar role for them in all formats, just as their Director of Cricket Brian Rose anticipated at the time of his signing. He took 26 wickets from eight first-class matches, and five from five List-A matches at 5.96, and his most impressive effort came in T20 games, grabbing 17 wickets from 16 matches at 6.30 to become the most successful and economical among regular bowlers in that format.
Understandbly, Kartik was chuffed. “As an overseas player, I need to ensure that the level of my performance is up to the mark always. I came to play for Somerset this season shortly after the IPL IV, and to maintain my performance, and body after a hectic tournament is quite satisfactory. I have been playing county cricket for seven years, and when people want you to come back and play for them year after year, I think I might have done something decent, or even half-decent.”
In conditons suited for pacers, Kartik has done remarkably well with his left-arm spin. He explains the secret. “It’s a question of adapting yourself to English conditions. If you go to a place like Taunton, it’s a hard place to bowl. When you go to Leeds or Nottingham it seams a lot there, so a lot depends on how you adjust to those conditions. Quicker you do that, it’s better for you.”
The theory sounded oh-so-simple. But Kartik admitted that his success was the result of a meticulous approach. Even in the on-going Champions League T20, Kartik’s economy rate stands at an impressive 5.75. “You will be knowing the conditions well, when you play seven seasons in County or back to India where you play in familiar surroundings. But that alone won’t assure you success. As a bowler you need to adapt and keep re-inventing yourself, rather subtly. These days a lot of footages are available of batsmen and bowlers, and everybody’s trying to work out the trend and patterns. So, the re-invention process is important for a cricketer.”
He also stressed on staying ahead of the batsmen tobe sucessful. “The mental aspect come here. In T20 the mindset is completely different from other formats with batsmen looking to score off all the time. You need to keep ahead of the batsmen, and that’s where the second guessing comes into play. You have to be good at the art of bowling right ball to right batsman at the right time, so you can minimise the damage.”