After a sluggish start, where he picked just one wicket in four matches and bowled only 97 overs, Karn Sharma suddenly shifted to top gear and picked three five-wicket hauls in his last three matches against Madhya Pradesh, Mumbai and Andhra. The Railways leg-spinner is back to his rhythm and making the ball talk.

Life hasn’t been a bed of roses for Karn. He had to battle at every level right from his junior days. The Meerut lad first played for Uttar Pradesh at the Under-14 level in 2000 but had to wait for five seasons till he played his next BCCI tournament. He was finding it hard to break into the Uttar Pradesh team at the Under-16 and Under-19 levels. However, coming from a family of sportsman helped him move forward. His father, Vinod Sharma was a good basketball player of his time, while his mother Poonam Sharma, a school teacher was a national level badminton player, and their support helped him bounce back. The spinner eventually got a break when he joined Railways after impressing at the Under -19 trials. After a good performance at the Under -19 level, he carried Railways Under -22 on his shoulders and soon broke into the Ranji Trophy team.

Three years ago, this Railways’ all-rounder was going through a bad patch. He wasn’t even in the Ranji Trophy squad and had BCCI not extended the Under-22 category to Under-25, it would have been difficult for him to make a comeback. He performed brilliantly for Railways in the Under-25 Col CK Nayudu Trophy (now Under-23) and finished as the highest wicket-taker in the country in the tournament to force his way into the Ranji Trophy squad. Karn bagged 48 wickets at 15.6 in seven matches, which included four five-wicket hauls and two ten-wicket hauls and won the MA Chidambaram Trophy in the Under-25 category, which led to his recall to the Ranji Trophy squad.

He has never looked back since. With 21 wickets from three matches, he had made his presence felt. The leg-spinner impressed everyone with his control of line and length. In 2013 IPL and formed a good partnership with Amit Mishra at Sunrisers Hyderabad that led the team to spend a whopping 3.75 crore—the highest bid for an uncapped player—in 2014 auction to repurchase him. Ankit finding his feet in MP fold If Rahul Dravid backs a player, there has to be something noteworthy about him. The former Indian Premier League team, Rajasthan Royals, mentor, on occasion asked Ankit Sharma to bowl with the new ball for the team, which illustrated Dravid’s faith in the left-arm spinner’s skill and temperament.

The 24-year-old has already played almost six seasons of first-class cricket, in which he has 70 wickets (average 47.55) and 972 runs (30.37) to show. Although Madhya Pradesh lost their crucial match against Mumbai in Indore, Ankit did try his best by taking five for 80 to skittle out Mumbai for 162 in the first innings in tandem with senior spin partner Jalaj Saxena to seize a first innings lead. The two are forging a good partnership for MP, who have struggled to find good spin pair after Narendra Hirwani. Ankit, the son of a bank manager, hails from Gwalior and started playing cricket under the guidance of Mohammaed Arif and Hardeep Gill.

However, professional cricket only started when he came to Indore, where he now lives.Growing up, Sharma idolized Daniel Vettori (former New Zealand captain), whose exploits as a left-arm spinner are well documented and also looks up to Yuvraj Singh and MS Dhoni. Ankit thrived under the guidance of Dravid, Monty Desai and Zubin Bharucha during his tenure with RR. Apart from being a reliable left-arm spinner, he is also useful batsman at No.8 and has started performing consistently at the position. VCA’s noble gesture

The Vidarbha Cricket Association is known for its hospitality. The trend continued when they gave 750 free tickets—250 tickets each—to students with humble backgrounds, differently-abled and deaf & mute students during the third Test between India and South Africa at the Jamtha Stadium. The students enjoyed watching their heroes in action and everyone from Virat Kohli to Ab De Villiers and Ishant Sharma to Morne Morkel, was cheered by these students.