Duleep Trophy Star Vidwath Kaverappa Cherishes Cheteshwar Pujara’s Wicket, Was ‘Ready’ For Suryakumar Yadav

Vidwath Kaverappa established himself in the Indian cricketing circles with a dominant seven-wicket haul in the Duleep Trophy final against West Zone. Not only did he end up with a match-winning performance, he won his first red ball trophy in the domestic circuit. To garnish the perfectly cooked recipe, he was also adjudged player of the series.

Cricketers, or for that matter, sportspersons, always have a unique journey and it is always intriguing to know the story behind the scenes of upcoming cricketers. News 18 CricketNext reached out to Kaverrapa’s childhood coach Samuel Jayaraj and had a candid chat with the pacer himself deep dive into his journey.

Kaverappa ended with 15 wickets from two games for South Zone in the Duleep Trophy and was ecstatic to win his first red ball trophy.

“It feels amazing to contribute to the team’s victory and play a major role in it. It was my first red ball trophy. So I’m really excited to go ahead and look forward to the season now," Kaverappa said in an exclusive conversation.

The talented seamer hails from a small town in Karnataka’s Coorg. His town, as he confirmed, is prominent for hockey. Kaverappa himself played hockey and tried his hand at several other sports during his school days but slowly diverted towards cricket. The professional journey, however, started in 2015-16 at a Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) talent hunt event.

While Kaverappa did not have many memories that period, Jayaraj narrated the incident quite interestingly.

“It was held in our academy facility. Our session normally starts at 3pm and I was watching this boy bowling. I was pretty impressed with him and went to speak to him. He was a small guy then, some 15-year-old boy. I asked him if he could stay back for a couple of days. He told me that he didn’t have a place to stay. I told him, I would make the arrangements, talked to his parents and his parents allowed him to stay and that’s how the journey started."

Kaverappa has a vague memory of his interaction with Jayaraj on that day, but added, “I’m forever grateful to him, for all the things that he’s taught me, and for taking me under him."

Interestingly, Kaverappa was fast-tracked into the Karnataka Ranji Trophy team after being a net bowler with the side. The pacer did play under-19 age group tournament, but was never a part of the under-23 squad.

“All I was doing was going to practice, just going there, just pulling to the main team. I just wanted to get some good quality practice, go to the top quality batters of our state, learn some tricks from the fast bowlers who are already part of the team.

“So all my intention was to just go there and keep learning and improving every day, to go for the practice matches and everything. And at that time, the coach, Eric, he was my coach when I played for under-19 as well. So he knew me already. And I think from then on, I played some practice games as well with the team. [And] They liked me," Kaverappa said.

The unexpected call

Kaverappa, however, was not expecting to get into the senior team. “All of a sudden I got a call. I wasn’t even expecting it. I was about to go on that Friday afternoon. I was just about to leave to Mangalore to play a League game over there. But by the time I was about to leave, I got a call saying that I need to go to Chennai and everything. At first, I didn’t believe it. Then, when they celebrated everything, I was like, Okay, what’s happening!"

Accordingly, the pacer made his Ranji Trophy debut in 2021/22 against Puducherry. He only managed one wicket in the two innings against Puducherry. After being fast tracked to the Ranji team, he managed three wickets from three innings at an average of 26. His better days were trying to clear the test of time.

2022-23 season was a breakthrough year of sorts for the pacer. He bagged 30 wickets from 8 games at an amazing average of 20.37. Kaverappa hunted in pack with Vijaykumar Vyshak and off-spinner Krishnappa Gowtham.

“Earlier, there were players like Javagal (Srinath), Venkatesh (Prasad) for Karnataka, then there was Vinay (Kumar) and others took over. Now there are boys like Kaverappa, Vyshak Vijay Kumar & Koushik. It is their hard work and almighty god knows, he will put things in the right place," Jayaraj exclaimed.

The journey hasn’t been an easy one for for Kaverappa but Jayaraj believes discipline and consistent hard work contributed to the seamer’s rise.

“He didn’t get into the Under-16 squad for Karnataka. But he was there in the KSCA academy. He was studying in Bangalore. He used to come and work on his skills. One thing, I would like to tell you is that he is very hard working, sincere and well disciplined. I always say that discipline will take you somewhere, someday. He played Under-19 for the state and then it was a good journey for him. He was under good coaches," Jayaraj said.

Coach Jayaraj also believes that he is ready for a bigger stage, whenever it comes his way. “There is always room for improvement… [But] any player, at any stage is ready. That hunger will be there to play the next level. He is mentally and physically ready. He has worked very, very hard. He comes from a very humble family. He has really been a blessing for his family."

Getting Pujara, planning for SKY

Jayaraj’s statement that Kaverappa is ready for a bigger stage was largely evident during the Duleep Trophy as the pacer ran through a star-studded West Zone batting lineup in the final. He dismissed the likes of Cheteshwar Pujara and Suryakumar Yadav in single digits.

Kaverappa already had plans for these batters.

“When you see, Pujara and Suryakumar Yadav are two completely different type of batters. Pujara who is known for his grittiness, who is known for his discipline, and on the other hand, Suryakumar is known for his extraordinary shots.

“I knew I had to be patient with Pujara. We knew we had to make him or wait him into making a mistake. Suryakumar Yadav, I had seen him quite a few times since he’s always on the TV, I used to keep watching him. And I knew he would always go for his shots. So I knew I had to get something of the wicket, some extra purchase of the wicket, or else it would be very difficult. And also the wicket that we play here on was very flat. So I was ready for them before the game."

Kaverappa was particularly happy dismissing the gritty Pujara.

“It’s really nice. It’s challenging. I like those batsmen. I like it when I can get them out and be on the upper end. So it was nice to get his wicket. Every fast bowler in the domestic circuit would love to pick up his wicket. We all know how good a batsman he is. So yeah, that was very nice. I would like to bowl to him again," Kaverappa exclaimed.

A part of credit for Kaverappa’s success shall also be shared with Jayaraj. The coach shares an interesting sync with his trainees. And it is rightly visible in the confidence players like Kaverappa and KL Rahul have shown in him. The players also ask Jayaraj if he saw them playing after every match.

“Both KL & Vidwath would call me and ask me if I watched them play whenever they have a match. Like, ‘how did you watch me’ or ‘for how many overs did you watch me?’

“I will tell you an example of this. Vidwath bowled a very bad ball during the Semi-final. We had a chat about it and he understood where he went wrong," Jayaraj narrated.

Besides his so-far amazing First Class career, Kaverappa has also had a few good spells with the white ball, including a five-wicket haul in T20s. What adds to the excitement is his ability to make seamless transition from the longer to the white-ball formats.

“It’s not a big switch for me. It’s just that the ball, its color is changed. That’s all what I think. Everything else remains the same for me. The process remains the same. The areas that I want to hit remain the same."

The off-season drills

Being a pacer, Kaverappa is also focused on his fitness, strength, and conditioning. Off seasons might prove to be more difficult to keep going without any matches but the speedster tries to keep it as simple as possible.

“When it’s my off season, I look back through the season and see what I’ve done, where I can improve. And then I try and build up my fitness. I increase my strength, do a lot of conditioning work, and keep my body ready for the coming season.

“And while in season, it’s just maintaining my body, taking care of it very well, eating well, sleeping well, and drinking plenty of water. Just the simple stuff," Kaverappa explained.

Coach Jayaraj, on the other hand, does not encourage spending too much of time in gym.

“For me, it is all about running. I would prefer someone running barefoot on the plain ground. It helps you a lot. Running helps you in everything. For me, it is mother of all sports. 15-20 minutes of normal running is enough. It is for endurance.

“I tell all my students, you got to run 180 minutes in a week. For instance, today you run for 20 minutes, tomorrow, you run for 30 or maybe 40 minutes. It depends on what you load you take.

“I have watched Kapil Dev coming in the morning and evening and running. That was the only thing and he played without injury."

After toiling hard, Kaverappa has made some gains in the domestic circuit. With the much-hyped Indian pace battery losing its fuse, another better domestic season might see Kaverappa gaining promotion.

However, Kaverappa is not fussed about making it to the next stage and is only looking to deliver at every opportunity he gets.

“I’m not really looking at it. It’s not under my control. I’m only focused on what’s under my control is that whenever or wherever I get the opportunity to go and play, just go out there and do your job well and everything else will fall in place," Kaverappa said.