The youngster is going from strength to strength in his first senior season
Ravichandran Smaran is a Bangalorean through and through. Like any other Karnataka-born youngster, he has a dream to don the red and gold of Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) one day. However, he is not picky. He is just eager to showcase his talents at the highest level by playing in the Indian Premier League (IPL).
The desire prompted him to appear for trials with Delhi Capitals ahead of IPL 2024. He didn’t make it. He doubled his efforts for IPL 2025 by giving trials for Rajasthan Royals, Lucknow Super Giants and Mumbai Indians. It didn’t happen again. While players much younger than him were celebrating their big pay checks, Samaran’s name was among the list of 395 ‘Unsold Players’.
If you ask Smaran, he is not flustered or disappointed.
“It’s everyone’s dream to play in the IPL and showcase our skills there. But I think it (chance in theIPL) is a byproduct of winning championships for Karnataka,” he told Cricxtasy in a recent interview.
As his name remained unpicked in the auction, he was doing his job with utmost dedication. The 21-year-old on his debut in the 2024 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy made a match-winning 57 off 31 against Tripura studded with eight boundaries and two sixes.
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He finished the tournament with 170 runs from six matches at a strike rate of 170 as Karnataka were unable to go past the group stages. A fifth year of going trophyless wasn’t a part of their plans and Smaran knew what he had to do.
He became the middle-order lynchpin for his side in the Vijay Hazare Trophy 2024-25 scoring a match-winning 100 not out off 87 balls in his first innings itself. He continued it with a run-a-ball 40 against Saurashtra and 83 off 75 balls against Hyderabad.
In the quarterfinal thriller against Baroda, Smaran wasn’t instrumental with the bat after being dismissed for 28, but made it count when things were on the line. His throw to keeper Shrijith Krishnan from deep mid-wicket off the fourth ball of the final over, got Bhargav Bhatt run out and won the game for Karnataka by 5 runs.
In the semifinal, he was yet again the ace for his team. Chasing 238 against defending champions Haryana, Karnataka were 66/2 when Smaran walked in. He got his team out of the trenches with a brilliant 128-run partnership with Devdutt Padikkal for the third wicket. By the time he was out for 76 in the 46th over, his team was just 13 runs away from a win.
Karnataka finally were able to end their trophy drought after six long years, thanks to a major contribution of 101 runs from Smaran in the final against in-form Vidarbha. The southpaw’s partnerships of 160 and 106 with Shrijith (78) and Abhinav Manohar (79) helped Karnataka post a total of 348/6 in 50 overs. Karnataka’s bowlers then restricted Vidarbha to 312 all out to lift their sixth Vijay Hazare title.
It was the result of Smaran’s philosophy.
“It is important to win games for the team I am with right now,” he had said when asked about his IPL dreams not shaping up.
As the Ranji Trophy 2024-25 resumed, Smaran kept doing the things he does best — build a big innings by forging partnerships. Walking in at 2-59 against Punjab on the first day, the lefthander paired up with Padikkal for a 62-run stand for the third wicket followed by a stand of 81 with Shrijith.
On the second day, Smaran got to his maiden first-class hundred while adding 86 runs for the fifth wicket with Abhinav Manohar. Despite reaching the three-figure mark, insatiable hunger for runs within Smaran didn’t let him to be loose with his shots.
Though there were few dodgy umpiring decisions, the 21-year-old went on to convert his first senior hundred into a double hundred while getting his team a massive lead of 420 runs.
As far as the IPL dream is concerned, it will now be ‘consequence’ of his runs.
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