India vs SL: Gowtham keen to make opportunities count

BENGALURU: The Indian team for the limited overs tour of Sri Lanka has six spinners in the line-up.
In the bevy of tweakers, Krishnappa Gowtham is the lone new face.
The others are Yuzvendra Chahal, Rahul Chahar, Krunal Pandya, Kuldeep Yadav and Varun Chakravarthy.
Having earned his maiden national call-up, the Karnataka off-spinner is not unduly worried about the competition in the team.
Instead, he is looking forward to soaking in the experience of being part of a national squad.
“I’m not thinking about the number of spinners in the team.
We all know the nature of Sri Lankan wickets.
My focus is on the opportunities I’ll get and how I make them count,” Gowtham, 32, told TOI on Friday.
The all-rounder’s call-up has been in the pipeline for a couple of years now, but when it finally came, Gowtham was understandably ecstatic.
“When we start off even as gully cricketers, the dream is to play for the country, so in that sense this opportunity is a dream come true.
I’ve been waiting for this break for a while and when I heard the news I was overjoyed,” said Gowtham, who was Chennai Super Kings’ prime pick of the season at a whopping Rs 9.25 crore.
Although he became the highest paid uncapped IPL player this season, the frontline spinner for Karnataka did not get an opportunity to roll his arm over.
But Gowtham believes there were a lot of takeaways from being part of the team.
“Yes, I’m yet to get a game with Chennai Super Kings but being with the team has been an amazing learning experience especially under the leadership of my dream skipper MS Dhoni.
Given the talent pool in the team, there was healthy competition between the players in the nets and all of us gave our best.
I thoroughly enjoyed the time with CSK and look forward to going back when IPL resumes,” pointed out Gowtham.
Another experience which Gowtham says will play a key role in his debut international role is that of being a net bowler during India’s home tour against England earlier this year.
“It was the best thing that happened in a while because you get to bowl to the best in the country.
When you match up with players of their calibre you prepare more before bowling in the nets.
Also, the national team coaches don’t get to see us much during domestic matches, so it provided me a platform to showcase my skills to the coaches.
The fact that the team was based in Chennai turned out to be a blessing for me as a spinner.”