27th January 2018 was a special day for the 29-year old Krishnappa Gowtham. The Karnataka all-rounder was fetched for a whopping 6.5 crores by Rajasthan Royals in the IPL auction. Before the auction day, Gowtham was just another domestic cricket spinner who was largely unknown. After being picked up for RR, Gowtham became a news overnight and everyone sought out after the latest millionaire.
The Beginning
Born on 20th October 1988, Krishnappa Gowtham is a Bangalorean by birth. He began his journey in cricket at a very young age and started progressing through the ranks. After his spectacular performances in the under-15 age group, he underwent a quite difficult period of moderate success.
The comeback story
The cricketer in him refused to give up and Gowtham soon the returned to the center stage by proving himself in the under-22 age group cricket. He received invaluable guidance from India’s one of the greatest spinner Erapalli Prasanna. The tips from the legend helped Gowtham to get better at the game.
Harbhajan connection
K.Gowtham grew up with Harbhajan Singh as his role-model. KG’s early bowling action was quite similar to the Turbanator. So much so that he was invited by the Aussies in the practice session while they were in India in 2008. He has remodeled his bowling action now but the inspiration lives in his heart. Gowtham was fondly called “Bhajji” by his teammates.
Ranji Trophy Success
2016 was the breakthrough year for K.Gowtham. He was a fringe player till then, but it was in 2016 that he established himself. In the Ranji Trophy season of 2016-17, he picked up 18 wickets in the first three matches and came into prominence.
IPL Calling
Rajasthan Royals is not K.Gowtham’s first team in the IPL. In fact, he was bought by Mumbai Indians in 2017 for a price of two crores. Unfortunately, he was benched by MI for the whole season and never played in a match. He took the perfect revenge by playing a match-winning innings of 33*(11) to defeat his former team.
