Koushik, content developer turned cricketer

The fast bowler's rise up the ranks from a white-collar worker to literally becoming a vital member in the Karnataka attack is one of the feel-good stories cricket throws up across the country.

Hubballi: V Koushik is not express fast. He doesn’t hit the deck hard. He’s not even the swinging variety. Yet, he has been one of Karnataka's best performers over the last few seasons across formats and now a vital cog in the pace trinity comprising Vidhwath Kaverappa and Vyshak Vijaykumar. So what’s the secret of his success. Simple, it’s his unwavering accuracy.

That very facet was on rich display here at the KSCA Stadium as he almost single-handedly destroyed Punjab with a sizzling 7/41 effort on the first day of their opening Ranji Trophy game. Like always, Koushik didn’t do anything extraordinary to land his career-best show. He just did, and excellently at that, with what has gotten him so far. His stupendous show, especially the first spell of 8-3-20-4, earned praise from none other than former India pacer and Karnataka selector Dodda Ganesh.

“Vasuki Koushik is so much like Venkatesh Prasad. Tall, Lanky and bowls tight lines with great discipline. Enjoying his spell here at Hubli. Koushik is a gem of a bowler. May he continue to shine for Karnataka #RanjiTrophy," Ganesh tweeted. While comparisons to Prasad, who succeeded at the highest level, may be a bit exaggerated, Ganesh is bang on about ‘great discipline’.

Gently running up the crease like a military medium pacer with barely any leap or exaggerated shoulder and hip movements — stuff one normally associates with practitioners of his art — late-bloomer Koushik kept landing the ball in and around the stump, and at a length that had the Punjab batters in two minds: commit forward or stay back?

With the ball moving just a little bit, Punjab batters needed to exhibit good patience and aptitude that’s a prerequisite at this level. Punjab, who’ve always found it hard against Karnataka in Ranji Trophy, didn’t and the 6’1’’ Koushik ran through them like ten pins on a glorious day for cricket.

“I’m happy with the start. Last year I bowled well for Karnataka. Was planning to have a good start to the season. Before this, I bowled well in Vijay Hazare. We had a good preparatory camp before Ranji started and everything is falling in place nicely,” said a delighted Koushik after the day’s play.

Feel-good story

Koushik’s rise up the ranks from a white-collar worker to literally becoming a vital member in the state team’s attack across formats is one of the feel-good stories cricket throws up across the country. An engineering graduate, the 31-year-old first started off as a spinner before switching to pace as he felt he could trouble the batters more. With Karnataka blessed with exceptional talents like R Vinay Kumar, Abhimanyu Mithun and S Aravind during his formative years, Koushik, more a self-taught bowler, couldn’t progress beyond local leagues.

While he continued to play league cricket to keep his love intact for the game, he got his engineering done and rose to the level of content developer. But with the love for cricket always burning bright inside him, he kept playing several tournaments, including tennis-ball ones, that helped him stay relevant.

He was a regular in KPL — Karnataka’s franchise-based T20 league — and his career changed for good in 2018 edition where he picked up 8 wickets in 6 matches. What caught the attention of the selectors was his economy rate of 4.67. He finally a got a state call-up for Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy and Koushik shot to fame instantly, playing a key role in Karnataka’s triumph with 17 wickets in 10 games. From there-in, his career has just kept growing. 

He sparkled in Vijay Hazare Trophy and was deadly in Ranji Trophy too last season, scalping 24 wickets in just 5 games. His average of 15.66 was the best among all bowlers with more than two games. He was brilliant this Vijay Hazare too and exceptional in the one innings of Ranji Trophy. Just the start he was genial giant was gunning for.