Persistence and simplicity - the Kartikeya Kak way

In 2011, Brazilian illustrator DUM made a colorful cartoon showing two men in a diamond mine. The younger of them was working enthusiastically towards a hoard of shining diamonds. The older one, a few feet below him, looked exhausted and was turning back just centimeters away from hitting the jackpot.

DUM called it persistência or persistence. Till around 2016, it was featured in hundreds of motivational blogs. After 2016, it became an extremely popular meme, called "Don't give up", and was used in various cheeky forms on social media.

In 2023, it's a big part of the cricketing philosophy of Hyderabad's Kartikeya Kak. The fast bowler has played six first-class matches, nine List-A matches, and two domestic T20s to account for 48 wickets. He was a net bowler with the Mumbai Indians (MI) during IPL 2021 and with the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in 2023.

"After coming back from there, I realised...it's like that (the meme), it's closer than you think. It's a matter of one good spell, one good match. So all these kids, all these guys who are like playing under-19, you know, they come and ask me, 'Bhaiya what should I do to get into the IPL?' I tell them it is closer than we think it is. It looks very far away but it's just a matter of one game, one really good game," Kartikeya told Sportskeeda.

Whether it was enough or not will be ascertained on December 19 in the IPL 2024 auction but Kartikeya came the closest as ever to that "one good match" on Friday.

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Kartikeya's moment under the cold sun

On a cold and muggy afternoon in Jaipur, he took five wickets for just 60 runs against heavyweights Maharashtra in the 2023 Vijay Hazare Trophy. It was his first five-wicket haul and best figures in the format since making his debut in December 2021.

Hyderabad had put up 315/5 on the board. Maharashtra started with a brisk 28-run stand in the first five overs. Kartikeya came one-change and took out Om Bhonsale (Maharashtra's top-scorer in the tournament) on the first ball of his spell - a fourth stump length ball that assaulted the outside edge to fly to the keeper.

Maharashtra recovered to 55-1 when Kartikeya brought a searing yorker out of nowhere to thrash Siddharth Mhatre's stumps. After being reduced to 85/3, Maharashtra put up their best stand of the match - 166 runs between Azim Kazi and Ankit Bawne. It was brilliant, sapping, and looked potentially game-killing.

Kartikeya was called in for his final spell in the last powerplay and again became the partnership breaker: another toe-crushing yorker went through a well-set Kazi (batting at 80 off 81)'s defenses and clattered the stumps.

Maharashtra had their most experienced duo of Kedhar Jadhav and Nikhil Naik taking care of the finishing but Hyderabad stretched the match and asked them to chase 22 off the last two overs. Kartikeya had an over left but Hyderabad went for the medium-pace of all-rounder Ravi Teja (wicketless at the time) to bowl the 49th.

Teja was taken to the cleaners by Jadhav and conceded 17. Kartikeya had five to defend off the last. The mood of the audience of mostly school kids on the stadium balcony changed from "Something's happening here" to "Oh, it's over" in six balls.

First ball of the 50th, Kartikeya took out Naik. Second ball, he sent back the No. 7 Prashant Solanki with yet another yorker. His fiery celebration had a contagious rush to it and seemed to give a bit of relief from the Jaipur cold.

Five needed off four, Sachin Bhosale made poor contact on a length ball outside off and it just tipped over the fingers of a leaping mid-on. Jadhav returned to strike and slammed the next ball to the boundary, and the quiet cold struck again.

All happened in the blink of an eye and Kartikeya stood heartbroken. Part of his disappointment was certainly because Hyderabad lost an important match. A win would have given them an outside chance of qualifying for the next round amid a poor campaign. But didn't he wish he had just a few more runs to defend?

"It's not like that," Kartikeya said. "Even when they had 4 runs left to chase, I still believed that I could pull it off. Maybe that strike being rotated [was the difference]. We were discussing that we shouldn't allow them to rotate strike because if Kedar Jadhav comes on strike, the probability of the match turning in their favor increases. So, percentage-wise, if another tailender had been on strike, we would have won. But I can’t do anything about the number of runs. What we can do is, whatever we are given, even the four runs, just try to maximize that."

Five of Kartikeya's 58 attempts got wickets on the day. A fraction of the rest were play and misses. But the 40-odd deliveries that hit the bat and didn't flatter the scorecard were not any less dramatic than the rest.

The thud of his deliveries hitting the bats' was louder and bulkier than any other bowler on the day. Almost every batter was getting late in playing him, and almost every delivery brought that extra crumb of discomfort for the Maharashtrians.

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Hyderabadi through and through

Kartikeya has his roots in Kashmir. His Kashmiri Pandit family, like many others in the 1990s, migrated to Hyderabad before he was born. The Kaks, which include Kartikeya's parents, younger sister, and grandmother, follow Kashmiri culture and love their Kahwah, Dum Aloo, and Rogan Josh.

But Kartikeya, having never visited the valley, finds his heart lying in Hyderabad.

"I don't identify as a Kashmiri but I know I am a Kashmiri and I am proud of that. But more than anything, I identify as a Hyderabadi. It's a weird situation to be in!" he said.

He's also a mechanical engineer ("Like every South Indian," he quips) - a 2018 graduate from the Gokaraju Rangaraju Institute of Engineering and Technology.

Even for a sport where some of the best journalists, writers, and producers were once engineers who left their jobs or dropped out of college to follow their passion, a high-level player with an engineering degree feels new.

Reminding him of his bespectacled photo on LinkedIn draws a big "Nahi yaar" (No, man) and a big laugh. Asking him how did he pull it off, he replied:

"Bro, honestly, mereko khud nahi pata! (I myself don't know)....You can manage it if you want. I never used to bunk classes in college... Whatever I used to study, I used to do it in college itself. After coming back I'd play cricket or go to the gym... It used to be just sitting in college, and studying and listening to everything wholeheartedly. I managed it somehow. Honestly, I also think sometimes that, 'Bhai kaise karliya tuune?' (Brother, how did you even do it?) (laughs). It just happened. I don't have an answer for it!"

The push for studies came from his mother, who's a school teacher. Kartikeya would hate it but on their summer vacation trips to Delhi, she'd buy school books for the next academic year in advance and make him study during the holidays.

To balance that out was his uncle, Anil Kak, a former under-19 fast bowler for Hyderabad who played a bit under Venkatapathy Raju. Anil introduced Kartikeya to cricket and pace at 12. A few years later, he took the teenager to Mirza Rahmatullah Baig, the decorated Hyderabadi coach at the Lal Bahadur Stadium.

As a kid, Kartikeya would listen to the stories of Anil's friends about his uncle's playing days and modeled his bowling action on what he learned from them.

Baig, the coach of VVS Laxman, among many others, refined it to its current form. He pounds to the crease but hardly makes a sound. His arm goes really high, really straight, and comes down like a hot knife on lukewarm butter. At the risk of puffery, Dale Steyn won't mind watching him ball a few overs someday.

"The foundation has been laid by both of them," Kartikeya said. "My action, my run-up, the intent I bowl with - all that is a combination of what chachu and Baig sir gave me."

Kartikeya lost both mentors this year. Baig passed away in October. Anil lost his life in February, soon after his nephew completed his debut Ranji Trophy season.

"He was in the ICU at the time when I was playing," Kartikeya recalled. "I used to send him videos after the big games. He used to get a bit of courage from it and it made him very happy... He wanted me to play for Hyderabad and do well for Hyderabad and when he was not his best, he could see me do well at least. I am happy that, at least, you know, I gave something back to him during his toughest time."

Kartikeya concluded the tournament with 24 wickets, shining as the only silver lining in the team's shocking winless campaign. It included a magnificent seven-wicket haul against Maharashtra. He has backed it up by leading the charts in the Vijay Hazare Trophy as well with 11 wickets at 20.63 apiece.

This was his first full domestic season. He earned a T20 debut in 2021 in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy and reposed the faith by picking up three wickets but was dropped from the next match. He played the game after that, and picked another wicket, but is yet to play again in the format for Hyderabad.

"Honestly, at that time, I felt I was a bit undercooked for T20s," Kartikeya admitted. "T20 is a game where you need to be at it from ball one. I took three wickets for 18 runs in the first three overs and got smacked in my last over in that first match. It was against Assam and Riyan Parag was playing. I couldn't handle the pressure at the time and I understood that, okay, maybe I need to practice a little more and get that right. Since then, I haven't been selected, although I've been doing well."

It sounds tough. But an oft-ignored quality in domestic cricketers also helps Kartikeya - he's not playing only to make it to the Indian team one day, he's also playing because he loves Hyderabad. He said "doing it for the team" and a will to put in a match-winning performance makes him run harder than most.

And it's not a one-day effort. Off-days and off-season are equally important. He has had a disciplined gym routine since he was quite young, knowing that to sustain bowling long spells with his intensity he needs to have a well-toned body.

"If you have to bowl fast, you have to be fit. If you have to do it with intensity, you have to work even harder on it. But there's that fine balance as well, you don't overdo it too. That fine balance you understand over a period of time," he said.

Apart from helping his cricket on the field, the consistent work now also comforts Kartikeya on tough days off the field and in the other facets of his life.

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Lessons galore in the IPL

Kartikeya knows his strengths and his approach to fast bowling is as no-nonsense as his action - get the new ball to swing at a high pace, consistently hit the good length if there's no help from the wicket, nail the yorkers if neither works. He doesn't bowl 140kph but his 'heavy deliveries' are quicker than most in domestic.

He has a good slower one in his armory as well but he prefers using it only as a surprise. When put under pressure, he prefers the yorker and keeps going for it even if he misses the lengths on a few, and he rarely misses. And that's enough.

It was, at least, enough for MI, who called him up to their camp in Dubai in 2021, after seeing just those two Syed Mushtaq Ali performances.

"Mumbai Indians' call-up was extremely random," Kartikeya said. "I just played two games that year in Mushtaq Ali. Those were the only two games in white-ball cricket at least. Both were telecasted live and I don't know, I just got the call. It was very out of the blue."

There, he got united with one of his childhood fast-bowling idols, Shane Bond, the franchise's bowling coach at the time. It took him a few days to realize how big a "chill guy" Bond is and then the duo developed a learning relationship.

"The atmosphere there, you know, is just about enjoying your cricket, there is no pressure. Make mistakes, as many as you want; make mistakes because you learn from that only, that's the mindset there," he stated.

This 'make mistakes' theory gave Kartikeya a lot of clarity. It told him that the only thing he needed to focus on was his plans and his field settings. If it came off, great, if it didn't, he'd know exactly what went wrong and how to work on it.

Another New Zealander, Trent Boult, gave him the second big lesson in three months. This one came through Boult's on-field tactic of keeping an unconventional field of a deep mid-wicket and a long-on in the powerplay against Kolkata Knight Riders's Chris Lynn during the season.

"We went crazy sitting outside," Kartikeya remembered. "'Bhai, ye naya ball se kyu kar raha hai aise?' (Brother, why's he doing that with the new ball). "Now, you think, a premier fast-bowler is bowling with the new ball and he has kept a long-on and deep mid-wicket in the power-play. [I thought] it is not like you have to set conventional stereotypical fields, but according to the batsman and according to the wicket."

"If you bowl with an ego thinking that l will bowl fast and will get him out at slips, then it is not going to happen on that wicket because in Dubai, the wickets were very slow, and the batsman, if he wants to hit, can only go straight. And he got him out at deep mid-wicket only," he added.

In 2023, he got another, in his words, random call-up, this time from CSK. He had not played any white-ball cricket in the lead-up to IPL but perhaps the franchise saw something in his Ranji Trophy performances that others didn't.

"[I thought to myself], 'Brother you must be doing something right, that's why champions teams are calling you,'" Kartikeya recalled.

The lessons in Chennai weren't too different from what he got in the UAE. CSK's bowling coach at the time Eric Simons helped him work on his seam positions apart from further work on what tactics to use on slow wickets.

But there was one moment that stood out. In a match simulation with Stephen Fleming and the other CSK staff watching, Kartikeya uprooted MS Dhoni's middle stump with a typical Kartikeya Kak delivery.

After seeing Dhoni cart the wide yorkers, Simons had advised him to try and hit the wicketkeeper-batter's heels to deprive him of any room. The ball fell slightly shorter than what Kartikeya wanted but it was enough to beat him on pace.

"At that moment, I just turned back and bowled, then when I went back to the hotel, I thought, 'Bhai kya kardiya yaar tuune aaj?' (Brother, what did you just do?)... I did not sleep because it was such a big wicket. It is so difficult to fathom... At that moment, you do not understand because you are in the moment, you are focused and you want to get the job done. I didn't get carried away because I was in that moment but when I came back it was like, 'Kya kardiya bhai?' (What did I do?) (laughs)."

That night he also wondered whether he'd get the video of the moment. He did and an Instagram upload of it got 6.7 million views (and counting).

It also met with thousands of comments from fans of the former India captain and various franchises, resulting in chaotic arguments under the post.

"It was not expected at all. A friend commented on that post and then texted me on Instagram that, 'Brother, none of my photos have 200 likes but this comment has!' (laughs)," he said.

Kartikeya saw the funny side to it but had to turn the comments off on the post.

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Looking forward

Age is not just a number in Indian cricket. Due to the abundance of young talent in the country, selectors often ignore domestic and age-group cricket experiences in front of the flair of youth when picking a player. Suryakumar Yadav is one of the few late bloomers to make it to the national team. And he's a freak.

But Kartikeya doesn't think he was "late" to debut at 25. For him, he has gotten his chances at the appropriate time and will continue to do so if his intentions are right.

"Baig sir always said, 'Improve your game and you'll be selected automatically'. He developed that mindset in me since then that I need keep improving your game by even that 1 percent every day. What has to happen will happen. Even if it doesn't happen, it's still okay because you ended up improving so much," he explained.

After polishing his strengths for the past three years at MI and CSK, this year, he's relishing the opportunity to be a middle-overs enforcer for Hyderabad in the 50-over game - a role he hadn't done a lot before the Vijay Hazare Trophy.

"I can feel really proud of myself in a way that, you know, I have done something out of my comfort zone because I don't feel there's growth while staying in your comfort zone," he said. "Although it's tough and coming into Vijay Hazare and bowling one-change, I never thought I would be able to do this. It was always that, 'If I get the new ball, then yes, I will take wickets.' But I am still taking wickets while coming one-change, I am really proud of that."

The same is key in T20s too. T20 teams don't accommodate too many Deepak Chahars who bowl most of their overs in the powerplay. They need all-rounder bowlers, capable of surviving in any over between one and 20.

According to a report by Sportstar, IPL scouts and analysts visiting the Vijay Hazare Trophy matches are looking at 'hit-the-deck' bowlers with good bouncers who can do the tough job in the middle overs and at the death.

But for Kartikeya, that's too far a bridge to worry about. Although he knew Lucknow Super Giants director MSK Prasad watched his five-wicket haul from the balcony, like others have done before, his focus only remained on making Hyderabad win.

Even now, his happiness lies in putting in match-winning performances for Hyderabad consistently. He believes that if his hard work warrants an IPL selection as the reward, no one will be able to take it away from him.

"Family members get excited, 'IPL is coming, what will happen, what will not happen?'," Kartikeya said. "My sister starts acting like a fish when IPL comes around. She wants me to get into RCB because she's a big Virat Kohli fan. I have to tell her that it's not in my hands! She plays cricket as well, so I try to make her understand that it's important to just focus on the day as it comes."