Karnataka teammates shower praises on S Aravind following his retirement

Karnataka medium-pacer S Aravind announced his retirement from domestic cricket after the end of the Vijay Hazare Trophy 2018 final on Tuesday. The 33-year-old, who finished his career with 186 wickets from 56 first-class games, will arguably do down as one of the finest seamers Karnataka has produced.

He was a critical part of the Karnataka squad that won the recently concluded national domestic tournament after beating Saurashtra by 41 runs in the summit clash. Following his retirement, Aravind’s teammates heaped praises on him for his imperative contribution.

Aravind was Vinay Kumar’s go-to bowler, who captained him for a large part of his domestic career. Speaking about the retired cricketer, Vinay Kumar said, “It is very difficult to find that kind of left-arm pacer. Whenever we needed a wicket, he was my go-to bowler. Sometimes we had to drop him because of the combination, but he always took it in a good way. He was a nice guy, a good team man.”

Together, Vinay, Aravind, and Abhimanyu Mithun formed a lethal fast-bowling attack that formed the backbone of Karnataka’s success in 2013-14 and 2014-15. In those two seasons, Aravind won the Ranji Trophy, the Irani Trophy and the Vijay Hazare Trophy with the Karnataka side.

The 28-year-old Mithun also hailed Aravind’s influence on his career. “He’s been my mentor from the time I started playing cricket. We were room-mates. He taught me everything. I used to go to him whenever I had any problems or doubts – not just about cricket but life itself. He had problems of his own but he still had a smile on his face all the time.”

Aravind’s career in brief

The 33-year-old ended his illustrious career with only one India cap, playing his solitary T20I against South Africa in October 2015, post the World Cup, and managed to pick up only one wicket in the game.

The left-arm seamer was an integral part of the Royal Challengers Bangalore in the IPL for a few seasons and was utilized to telling effect by Virat Kohli in the powerplays. He played a total of 38 IPL games from 2011-2017, picking up 45 wickets at an average of 23.08.

At a base price of Rs. 50 lakh, he went unsold in the IPL 2018 auctions.