Bengaluru Blasters retained player for KPL 2018- Koushik V interview. Here is everything that you need to know about the one of and Karnataka and KPL’s upcoming, pace bowler. – CricKarnataka exclusive.

Koushik V

The 2018 edition of the Karnataka Premier League is about to kick off on the 15^th of August, and the auctions took place here in Bangalore for the same, and the teams were allowed to retain a maximum of 4 cricketers and the Bengaluru franchise has retained this young pacer from Bangalore. Here are few interesting facts about Koushik V and we take you through the journey of Koushik V who at some point of time faced a career threatening back injury and had to stay away from cricket for almost 18 months, but he made a strong comeback later, and is now in a stage where his team has decided to retain him.

Koushik V, has played for Karnataka in the under 23 and under 25 age groups. He has previously been part of the Shamanur Davangere Diamonds, Bellary Tuskers and the Mysuru Warriors in the Karnataka Premier League. Recent in the Shafi Darshah tournament 2017 playing for the Combined 11 team, he emerged as the top wicket taker of the tournament.

 Here is a journey around Koushik V's as he was interviewed by CricKarnataka where he open heartedly spilled out his experience his career, his personal life, his struggles, and here is everything that you need to know about the upcoming cricketer.

Koushik, you have been retained by the Bengaluru Blasters team for KPL 2018. How do you feel about this retention?

      It’s a very good feeling to be retained by a team and the Bengaluru Blasters have shown good faith in me and I am hoping to do well again for the Blasters, for banking on me.

Do you feel any kind of pressure since now there is a lot of expectations from you and are you into any kind of preparation for the mega event?

         Well, there is no pressure as such, I think you just need to keep calm and try to deliver good performances. I have been practicing and will just play my natural game and hope everything works according to plan and I am looking forward to play.

So Koushik, you have been a very good cricketer and we have seen it all these years, now tell us how cricket started for you.

        Well, I started cricket with tennis ball cricket in my neighbourhood. Then I started my cricket coaching in RWF ground, and I started as a batsman who could bowl spin bowling, at that time. I had represented my school Kendriya Vidyalaya (RWF) at various national tournaments.

I had been part of the prestigious School Games Federation of India (SGFI), where there were around 800-900 schools from all over India participated. In the SGFI, I played in the under 16 and also under 19 age groups representing the all India team of Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan. I was the captain for the Kendriya Vidhyalaya Bangalore zone team for almost 4 years till my 12th standard and we had tournaments in various parts of the country. Our best performance was in the KV Nationals meet in Delhi where we were runner ups winning the silver medal. So basically in a nutshell my junior cricket was very much confined to school cricket. 

This sounds very interesting, you are now a fast bowler and you told that you bowled spin during your early years. How did this shift happen, tell us something about it.

        Until my 12th standard I played as an off spinner and once I had been to one of the Nationals tournaments in Hyderabad representing the Kendriya Vidhyalaya Bangalore team and in that tournament I was bowling my usual off spin . But unfortunately things didn't go right for me in that tournament and the batsmen took charge over me and hit runs against me, my economy rate was very bad that tournament and, I was very disappointed by that series and when I came back I just tried bowling medium pace with tennis ball

 I was told that I had a really good pace and all these things and my good performances and a few practice matches made me more confident and I decided that I would bowl seam from then.

When did you decide that you had to play cricket professionally, how did you parents support you, did they have any objections? 

      My parents always supported me with my cricket and I had the freedom to take up my cricketing career. And speaking about taking cricket professionally? As I told you before, I had no idea what league cricket was and how it's played, and on the suggestion of one my friends, I gave trials for the Bangalore Cricketers team and the team management was impressed by my bowling skills and they signed me. And I started playing the second division league from there. On my debut match against Sir Syed Cricketers, I picked up 6 wickets and had a very good season for the team. 

How did your Karnataka Premier League journey start, being part of such a prestigious league at such young age, how did it all happen? 

         I was playing my regular league cricket and one of the then KPL players had seen me  play well and called me for selection. Later I gave trails for the KPL team selection and I was picked up by the Shamanur Davangere Diamonds, the team that was lead by former team India all-rounder Sunil Joshi. But despite this opportunity, my luck wasn't with me as a disaster struck me in the form of a career threatening back injury. I later found that it was called congenital spine narrowing and it was impossible for me to bowl even a single ball, this was very disheartening and I was ready to play the tournament despite the pain as I didn't want to lose such an opportunity. But my then team physio Shravan sir advised me that I was just 17 years old and taking risk now would ruin my whole career as the injury was serious, so with all the disappointment I ended the season without playing even a single game. After that KPL season, I stopped cricket for almost 18 months and I was fully on recovery mode. At this point I felt that my career was over and started to concentrate on my Engineering. But that passion for the game was never gone and I again made a comeback after 18 months. 

"Making a come back after an injury", that's really inspiring, so tell us about your come back and career afterwards.

        I got to know that my back pain would usually come only when I bowled a specific action , so I made changes in my bowling action and came back even stronger but I believe my pace was reduced this time, and I went on to play in KSCA Zonal Tournaments in the under 19s, 22s, 25s age categories. In 2014 I was the highest wicket taker in the under 23 Zonals, and with this performance I was selected for the Karnataka under 23 and Karnataka under 25 teams subsequently and I had good performances there. In 2015, I was picked by the Bellary Tuskers team but I just had to just warm the bench for the whole season. 

while playing for Karnataka under 25 team

You later went on to play for Mysuru Warriors and the Bengaluru Blasters in the KPL , how was that experience? 

    After not getting even a single game with the Bellary Tuskers. In 2016 I was picked by the Mysuru Warriors, where I had a good season with them. I had decent economy rate and was looked upon as a very good death bowler. Later in 2017, I had pretty good performances and I had topped the charts in the Shafi Darshah tournament as I emerged as the highest wicket taker and consequently picked by the Bengaluru Blasters. I again had some decent bowling performance in the KPL, where I picked 8 wickets, bowling along with our pace attack of Prasidh Krishna and Abhishek Bhat. We had a quality side but still ended at the bottom of the table. This 2018 season we have a good team and hope we can do better this time. 

Koushik while playing for the Bengaluru Blasters.

It's been an absolute pleasure speaking to you, tell us about what your future plans are and where do you see yourself in the near future. 

       Like any other cricketer, my aim is to play for India one day, and at the moment I'm 25 years old and it's tough for pace bowlers as the age progresses. I'm putting in extra effort and my immediate aim is to play for Karnataka in the Ranji trophy and I hope I can do it in the next two years. If I'm able to make to the state team and deliver good performances then maybe I can play for India in the days to come. I hope that these things happen one day and try to give my best to every team that I play...

Your opinion on CricKarnataka intiative:

     It’s a good initiative. Its like a good bridge connecting people who are interested in Karnataka Cricket. A platform to know the stories behind the upcoming cricketers. All the best to you.

Thank you Koushik for speaking to CricKarnataka, we are very happy to listen to you and now that you have a bigger responsibility we hope you do well and hope that your story and struggles inspire more people and we wish you all the best Koushik. we expect to see you in a much better place.