<p>The story of Sourav Ganguly switching to left-handed grip despite being a right-hand-preferring ambidextrous player is well chronicled.</p>.<p>The switch is attributed to the fact that his elder brother Snehashish, a former Bengal batsman, batted left-handed. Ganguly, in order to use his sibling’s gear, turned himself into a left-hander. Coming from a wealthy family, why exactly he had to do that is unknown but his choice gave India its most successful left-handed batsman. </p>.<p>KL Shrijith may or may not know about this anecdote but the wicketkeeper-batsman can relate himself to the story. If the 24-year-old hadn’t switched from right to left on what can only be called a whim, he probably wouldn’t have made it as far as the 20-member squad for Karnataka’s upcoming Syed Mushtaq Ali T-20 Trophy campaign. </p>.<p>“Yes. I was ambidextrous when I was young and I say ‘when I was young’ because I stopped working on it as I got older and now I’m quite ‘normal’, I think,” says the Bengaluru-based cricketer when asked about the switch.</p>.<p>“When I started playing tennis ball or gully cricket near my house, I couldn’t get a lot of runs when I played right-handed. But each time I switched to left I was able to score. When I started playing leather-ball cricket, I had the same problem. I’m not sure which tournament it was but I batted right-handed the first match and didn’t score runs so I switched to left the next game and hit some 40-odd runs. I started batting left-handed that day onwards.”</p>.<p>“My coach wasn’t too impressed, I got yelled at a lot, but in my defence, I did make it to the Karnataka team (laughs),” he adds.</p>.<p>That he did. After putting up consistent numbers over the years in age-group cricket, Shrijith finally got the selectors to take note when he top-scored in both the YS Ramaswamy Memorial 50-over tournament with 292 runs from five innings and the KSCA T20 League with 221 runs in six innings.</p>.<p>Frankly, the cream of Karnataka batting wasn’t at its best, perhaps owning to the pandemic-related break, but it was Shrijith’s opportunity to stand out.</p>.<p>“No, not really,” he says when asked if he was surprised by the call-up. “I have been in the reckoning for close to three years on the back of solid performances in age-group cricket.</p>.<p>“Breaking into the Karnataka team is not easy even though most of them play for the Indian team and are away a lot. I just didn’t have luck on my side because they would come back each time there was an opening for me.” </p>.<p>Shrijith began his fairly inconspicuous journey at the Brijesh Patel Cricket Academy before he was spotted by Abhimanyu Mithun, the senior Karnataka paceman.</p>.<p>“Mithun was the one who noticed me. He picked me to play for his club - Vultures Cricket Club,” says the B Com graduate from Jain University. “I got to learn a lot from seniors like Mithun, Karun (Nair) and Ronit (More).”</p>.<p>Asked to elaborate, Shrijith says: “They taught me that cricket is about more than just the skill. It’s mostly your mindset. Most of us know how to play and can play at a very high level when our skill is allowed to express itself, but it’s the mind that stops us from doing that. We think of all the things we don’t need to and forget to stay in that moment. They taught me how to keep it simple and not swing to extremes emotionally, stay neutral.”</p>
<p>The story of Sourav Ganguly switching to left-handed grip despite being a right-hand-preferring ambidextrous player is well chronicled.</p>.<p>The switch is attributed to the fact that his elder brother Snehashish, a former Bengal batsman, batted left-handed. Ganguly, in order to use his sibling’s gear, turned himself into a left-hander. Coming from a wealthy family, why exactly he had to do that is unknown but his choice gave India its most successful left-handed batsman. </p>.<p>KL Shrijith may or may not know about this anecdote but the wicketkeeper-batsman can relate himself to the story. If the 24-year-old hadn’t switched from right to left on what can only be called a whim, he probably wouldn’t have made it as far as the 20-member squad for Karnataka’s upcoming Syed Mushtaq Ali T-20 Trophy campaign. </p>.<p>“Yes. I was ambidextrous when I was young and I say ‘when I was young’ because I stopped working on it as I got older and now I’m quite ‘normal’, I think,” says the Bengaluru-based cricketer when asked about the switch.</p>.<p>“When I started playing tennis ball or gully cricket near my house, I couldn’t get a lot of runs when I played right-handed. But each time I switched to left I was able to score. When I started playing leather-ball cricket, I had the same problem. I’m not sure which tournament it was but I batted right-handed the first match and didn’t score runs so I switched to left the next game and hit some 40-odd runs. I started batting left-handed that day onwards.”</p>.<p>“My coach wasn’t too impressed, I got yelled at a lot, but in my defence, I did make it to the Karnataka team (laughs),” he adds.</p>.<p>That he did. After putting up consistent numbers over the years in age-group cricket, Shrijith finally got the selectors to take note when he top-scored in both the YS Ramaswamy Memorial 50-over tournament with 292 runs from five innings and the KSCA T20 League with 221 runs in six innings.</p>.<p>Frankly, the cream of Karnataka batting wasn’t at its best, perhaps owning to the pandemic-related break, but it was Shrijith’s opportunity to stand out.</p>.<p>“No, not really,” he says when asked if he was surprised by the call-up. “I have been in the reckoning for close to three years on the back of solid performances in age-group cricket.</p>.<p>“Breaking into the Karnataka team is not easy even though most of them play for the Indian team and are away a lot. I just didn’t have luck on my side because they would come back each time there was an opening for me.” </p>.<p>Shrijith began his fairly inconspicuous journey at the Brijesh Patel Cricket Academy before he was spotted by Abhimanyu Mithun, the senior Karnataka paceman.</p>.<p>“Mithun was the one who noticed me. He picked me to play for his club - Vultures Cricket Club,” says the B Com graduate from Jain University. “I got to learn a lot from seniors like Mithun, Karun (Nair) and Ronit (More).”</p>.<p>Asked to elaborate, Shrijith says: “They taught me that cricket is about more than just the skill. It’s mostly your mindset. Most of us know how to play and can play at a very high level when our skill is allowed to express itself, but it’s the mind that stops us from doing that. We think of all the things we don’t need to and forget to stay in that moment. They taught me how to keep it simple and not swing to extremes emotionally, stay neutral.”</p>