From Amazon to Karnataka: V Koushik's inspiring journey

Karnataka, on Wednesday, made light work of Chhattisgarh in the semi-final of the Vijay Hazare Trophy to storm into the final. One of the heroes of the game was opening bowler V Koushik. A completely new face in the domestic circuit, the pacer ripped through Chhattisgarh’s top order leaving no room for momentum in the powerplay overs.

Harpreet Singh and Amandeep Khare tried their best to bat their team out of trouble but could not. Chhattisgarh kept losing wickets at regular intervals and eventually ended up with a modest total of 223. V Koushik starred with the ball by picking up four wickets. He dismantled Chhattisgarh’s top-order by dismissing their top three for just 35 runs.

Karnataka, nonetheless, had little difficulty in chasing the modest target as they crossed the finishing line with ten overs to spare. Openers Devdutt Padikkal and KL Rahul put up a 155-run opening stand to set up the win. Mayank Agarwal, who walked in at three, put up the finishing touches with a 33-ball 47 to complete a resounding victory for his side.

The win, meanwhile, has brought the focus on V Koushik and rightly so. The pacer will be looking to make the most of his strong start to his Karnataka career. Things, however, could have been very different had fate not been in favor of him. Koushik could have ended like many talented cricketers who pursued other interests.

The Karnataka bowler was a mechanical engineer who later worked for Amazon. Until the age of 17, he was an off-spinner but bowled medium pace in tennis-ball matches. Around 2009, towards the end of his school life, he had a tough outing which compelled him to switch to medium pace even with the hardball.

The inspiring journey

Koushik’s journey in the game so far is really inspiring. The lanky pacer was struggling to devote time to game due to his studies and it made things tougher for him. He could not come up with good performances which hindered his selection. But it all changed after he joined Amazon and started playing regularly.

“I used to play cricket just for passion, I didn’t know about the league structure or club structure until I was 17. At 17, I started playing league cricket. Later when I joined engineering, I used to miss out on many games due to exams. Because of that, my returns were also not good enough to get me selected for zonals,” V Koushik was quoted as saying by ESPN Cricinfo.

“After I finished engineering, I took a break of eight months and that’s when I played for U23 Karnataka. I did well that year and from there it picked up. Later I joined Amazon, I worked for a one-and-a-half year as a content developer. During that time, I used to play all kinds of matches, league matches, corporate matches, whichever matches I could get, I used to play,” he added.

Koushik made his List A debut through the ongoing Vijay Hazare Trophy and will have a chance to end the competition on a great note when his team takes on Tamil Nadu in the final. Another good display can pretty much pave the way for his first-class debut in the forthcoming Ranji Trophy.

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