Shreyas Gopal: Indian cricket's unsung hero

Shreyas Gopal. The memory that springs to mind on hearing his name is that IPL game of 2018 where he dismissed two modern-day batting greats: Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers in successive overs. Well, if you thought that was only a flash in the pan, then you’re absolutely wrong.

Gopal has had the wood on these greats consistently in the IPL. The very next season, both Kohli and De Villiers were part of the leg-spinner’s hat-trick during the rain-curtailed encounter between the Royal Challengers Bangalore and the Rajasthan Royals.

In fact, the moment Kohli comes out to bat we’ve seen the Royals’ skipper turn to his most trusted leg-spinner, Shreyas Gopal, time and again. This simply speaks volumes of the impact the Karnataka bowler has had at the biggest T20 league in the world — the IPL.

Gopal’s consistency over the years

From the day Gopal made his first-class debut for Karnataka in the 2013/14 season, he’s been consistent with both bat and ball. This right-handed batsman was an opener for Karnataka in his U19 days, and batted alongside the likes of Karun and Samarth at the age-group level.

Later, he took a special liking for bowling and became a genuine leg-spinner although he could still contribute like a top-order batsman. Gopal began his first-class career by picking 5 wickets against Mumbai on debut, helping his team, Karnataka, register its first-ever outright win against their arch-rivals. He then signed off the season by picking up a famous hat-trick against a quality Rest of India side in the Irani Cup, 2014.

Gopal had truly arrived at the drop of a hat; and he hasn’t looked back since. He was captain Vinay Kumar’s go-to man to break a partnership during Karnataka’s dream run where they won six trophies across formats in two years.

And more often than not, Shreyas Gopal, the batsman, also came to the fore rescuing the team by stitching together some valuable partnerships with the lower-order. With such performances he gradually became an integral member of the champion Karnataka side. Gopal was elevated to the vice-captain’s post recently and also led Karnataka in one game in 2018.

Now, seven seasons after his debut, in 2020, Gopal has played a total of 64 first-class games and picked up 191 wickets at an average of 28, with six 5-wicket hauls; he has also scored 2674 runs at an average of 35, including 4 centuries and 11 half-centuries.

Well, these are numbers any genuine all-rounder would be proud of, and Gopal certainly is one of the better all-rounders in the country. To add to these numbers, the fact is, he’s capable of winning you games with both bat and ball, and is an agile fielder as well.

But, ironically, his name doesn’t do the rounds whenever the Indian team is picked. Perplexingly, of late he’s not even a regular member of the India A setup, let alone the Indian team. The last time he played for India A was in 2018, picking up 6 wickets from 3 List-A games at the time. Gopal’s overall list-A numbers are impressive too. He has picked 64 wickets from 40 games at an average of 22 with an economy of 5. These stats reiterate that he’s not a one-trick pony and can both put pressure on the batsman and pick up wickets too.

Shreyas Gopal in the IPL

After starting his IPL career in 2014, with the Mumbai Indians, Shreyas Gopal was picked by RR in 2018. And he’s had three consecutive fruitful years with them.

The leggie’s simply been their man for all seasons — their Mr Reliable with the ball. 48 wickets from 45 games at an average of 24, with an economy of 7.8 in the IPL delineates the fact that Gopal has been more than decent at this stage.

The 27-year-old Shreyas Gopal’s IPL numbers are on par with India regular Yuzvendra Chahal — a fact that needs immediate attention. In the IPL, whenever the batsmen come hard at him with all guns blazing, Shreyas Gopal has shown a lot of courage by staying unfazed and flighting the ball.

The Bangalore-born cricketer also has a well-disguised googly in his repertoire, with which he’s been picking wickets aplenty. Some of the batsmen Shreyas Gopal has dismissed in the IPL include Kohli, De Villiers, Kieron Pollard, Shimron Hetmyer, Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan and MS Dhoni.

Now the fact that he’s been getting wickets of international batsmen consistently, says a lot about his bowling abilities, and that has not gone unnoticed. Simon Doull, on-air, even suggested that Shreyas Gopal is the reason a leggie is called in to bowl every time Virat Kohli comes in to bat.

Finally, on the batting front, unfortunately, he’s been batting too low to make an impact in the IPL. While we’ve seen many players in the past break into the Indian set-up after just one good IPL, Shreyas Gopal’s incessant exclusion despite good IPL and domestic performances year after year befuddles the average cricket fan.

Time ripe for Shreyas Gopal to be considered

Shreyas Gopal has proven his mettle time and again and has established himself as an all-format player — which is a rare quality among all-rounders these days. The seven years’ grind at the domestic level has also made him mature at a very young age.

But the constant neglect can cause any youngster to lose his focus and go astray. Hopefully, this selection aberration is put to rest sooner rather than later, and Gopal gets his much-deserved opportunities at least at the India-A level forthwith, while he’s still young. A wrist-spinner with good batting prowess is always an asset for any team, and Shreyas Gopal is someone who perfectly fits the bill.