Shivil Kaushik: 13 lesser-known facts about the Indian Paul Adams

Throughout the 2016 season of IPL, Shivil Kaushik was famous for his action more than his bowling.

Born September 7, 1995, Shivil Kaushik is a slow left-arm chinaman bowler, who became popular for his weird action in the 2016 edition of Indian Premier League (IPL). Kaushik represented Suresh Raina-led Gujarat Lions in the ninth edition of the tournament. He has often been compared to South African Chinaman bowler Paul Adams, whose action was very similar to Kaushik’s. Throughout the 2016 season of IPL, Kaushik was famous for his action more than his bowling. Going by the trustworthy websites like Cricket Archive or Wikipedia, his birthday falls on July 9 but Kaushik confirmed his actual date of birthday as Septmeber 7. Many news and cricket websites have already wished him on his birthday two months before and on this occasion, Abhishek Kumar digs out 13 lesser– known facts about him.

1.  Famous for his bowling action: Kaushik has a weird bowling action, which is quite difficult as well. Being a left-arm spinner, he starts with a short and slow run up like a typical spin bowler and then stops around the wicket, twists his body alarmingly and releases the ball from the back of the hand with his head tilted upward. From his very first ball in the cash-rich tournament’s ninth season, Kaushik became famous and soon was trending on social media.

Say Hello to India’s @PaulAdams39 #RPSvGL #VIVOIPL @TheGujaratLionshttps://t.co/pxQal5wJw8

— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) April 29, 2016

2.  No experience of domestic cricket: Kaushik is among those rare cricketers to have featured in IPL without having First-Class, List A or domestic T20 experience. Before him, Kamran Khan and Pravin Tambe played in this tournament without having any domestic experience.

3.  Praised by Paul Adams: It is true that Chinaman bowlers are rare in cricket and on top of it, having such bowling action is among the rare of the rarest. Kaushik’s action made him popular but there was someone else who had similar action and played international cricket too. South African Chinaman spinner Adams was the first one with such weird action and was quite impressed with Kaushik in IPL and tweeted too.

Remind you of someone! Wow #Kaushik ! Great to see the art of #Chinaman bowling alive #IPL2016 #RPSvGL pic.twitter.com/6CCBLAvqeJ

— Paul Adams (@PaulAdams39) April 29, 2016

4.  Winner of Spin-Stars contest: Kaushik’s journey to limelight began when he participated in Spin Stars contest for Karnataka in 2015. Among the 3,000 participants, Kaushik won the contest and a prize money of INR 1 lakh but there was another prize which was much bigger than the winning amount. He got a chance to become part of a camp which was supervised by none other than India’s two most successful leg-spinners — Anil Kumble and BS Chandrasekhar.

5.  Jumbo impressed: Kumble was quite impressed with Kaushik’s bowling in the camp and took him to Mumbai Indians (MI) for trials. He bowled a spell of four overs in which he took four wickets by conceding only 13 runs. Still he did not get the IPL contract as his name did not come in the auction.

6.  An advice from Sachin Tendulkar: Kaushik did not get the IPL contract but he got a precious advice from the living legend. He met Tendulkar during the trials for MI who advised him to bowl the cross-seam quicker ball. Later on, Kaushik developed that delivery.

7.  Family: Interestingly, his last name his Kaushik but his father’s name is Arun Sharma, who works at a telecom company and is also a cricket fan. Kaushik’s mother Sandhya is a teacher at Army Public School. Kaushik is originally from Gurdaspur, Punjab but his family shifted to Bangalore around 15 years back.

8.  Other sports: Kaushik played basketball and hockey during his school days but it was his father who wanted him to become a cricketer and to make him focus on this sport, he was put under the tutelage of Sadanand Viswanath — former Indian wicketkeeper, at his academy.

9.  Confusion over his selection in IPL: Before him, KC Cariappa was taken by Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) in IPL 2016 auction and then the real drama began because when his name got announced, there was someone else’s photo instead of Kaushik’s. “When my name was announced, there was some other person’s photo. We were confused as it all happened very fast. Initially we did not know whether it was me or someone else, but then we checked on the internet and once we knew it was me we were very happy,” said Kaushik.

10.  Bowled’em! Oops, that was the no ball: Kaushik’s maiden IPL match was against MS Dhoni-led Rising Pune Supergiants (RPS). He was given to bowl his first over in the eighth over of the match in which he bowled pretty decently by conceding only 8 runs. In his very second over, he would have got his maiden IPL wicket, that too of Steve Smith, on the last ball of the over but he overstepped. Kaushik had done all the celebrations required for his maiden IPL wicket but all those efforts went in vain. On the very next ball, Smith hammered him for a six.

11.  First KPL, then IPL and now YPL: Kaushik started his T20 career with Karnataka Premier League (KPL) last year, followed by IPL in 2016 and then he got into Yorkshire Premier League (YPL). After his impressive IPL performance this year, Hull Cricket Club (HCC) of Yorkshire contacted him through former Indian cricketer Makarand Waingankar. This is the first time Kaushik is heading for an overseas stint.

12.  Bowled at English batsmen at Lord’s: After going to England, Kaushik did not stop getting surprises from his life as he got the chance to practice at Lord’s and that too against England batsmen in the nets for their Test series against Pakistan. The young Chinaman bowler from India will participate in England’s practice session at Lord’s from July 11, 2016. He was invited by youth administrator of Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) Craig Park to bowl for three days from July 11-13. He was recommended by Samir Pathak — founder of Cricket Beyond the Boundaries to MCC. It was also heard that Pakistani cricketers too are keen to bat against Kaushik.

13.  Fifer in YPL: Kaushik picked up five wickets for 41 runs in a match between his side HCC and their east coast rivals Scarborough. Kaushik’s fifer helped HCC in winning the match by 28 runs.

(Abhishek Kumar is a cricket devotee currently staffing with Criclife.com. He can be followed on Twitter @abhik2593 and on Facebook at abhicricket.kumar)