“With the team that we have, we will be back stronger and try to win the trophy next time,” Ravichandran Smaran said about Karnataka coming second best to Jammu and Kashmir in the 2025-26 Ranji Trophy final. Interestingly, he didn’t just observe it once, not twice, but thrice through the course of the interview with RevSportz. An indicator of his insatiable hunger to help Karnataka hoist the Ranji Trophy, especially against the backdrop of the state having not won the tournament since the 2014-15 season.
In his endeavour to propel Karnataka’s surge in the Ranji season, Smaran and his coach Syed Zabiullah sir (as he is fondly called in Karnataka’s cricketing circles) had laid down a goal. And that was for Smaran to accumulate 1,000 runs. As it happened, he almost achieved that by notching up 950 runs. Those runs included two double tons, adding to the double century he had already notched up versus Punjab during the 2024-25 Ranji season.
“It was my goal to get 1,000 runs,” Smaran noted. “To finish at the top of the run charts. The main talk was about getting the Ranji Trophy back for Karnataka because it has been a very long time. It has been 11 years since we won. Before the season, the only talk (with his coach) was with my batting to get the trophy home. Very gutted that we didn’t win it this season. We were very close, but that is how the game goes,” he added.
“I was batting well in the lead-up to the Ranji Trophy,” he said. “I had a good start, got an 80 (77) against Saurashtra, then a couple of bad innings against Goa. The double hundred against Kerala really boosted my confidence. To get two double hundreds during the season was very special. Obviously, we had a break, playing in the Vijay Hazare Trophy. Scraping through with that victory against Punjab, entering the knockouts made it even more special for the entire team.”
It wasn’t just about the runs that Smaran aggregated. It was also about how he went about accumulating those runs. Consider the innings against Mumbai to decipher the left-hand batter’s sound temperament. By the time KL Rahul was dislodged, Smaran was on 65 off just 82 deliveries. Soon, Karnataka slipped to 285 for 6. With around 40 runs required to provide the finishing touches, the question was what would be the promising batter’s approach? Meanwhile, Mumbai had spread the field.
Smaran smartly changed his tactics by dealing in singles. On the other hand, Vidyadhar Patil, the lower-order batter, took a few risks and Karnataka overhauled the target. Such was Smaran’s calmness under pressure that this correspondent thought of a punchline for him – The Rock of Nandi Hills.
“Once Rahul got out, we had to get another 70-80. And it is always a tricky situation when you have 70-80 runs to win and you have 4-5 wickets left. They were also coming at us with short balls. Once Shreyas (Gopal) and Kruthik (Krishna) also were dismissed, Vidyadhar came out to bat. Throughout the season, Vidyadhar contributed with the bat in crucial situations. He is the kind of batter who can take the game away from the opposition in a few overs.
I just told him, “if it is in your slot, go for it’ and he got a couple of boundaries. By the time they could pile up the pressure on him, we were already close to the target. We had only 25-30 runs left. It was important that I stayed at one end, irrespective of what was happening at the other end. With Vidyadhar putting pressure on them, I was just rotating the strike, getting a few boundaries away. I am glad that the two of us could finish the game,” he observed.
In this context, Smaran also touched upon how he goes about constructing a long innings. “I have always taken it session by session while batting, and I don’t focus too much on the outcome. There are phases of the game where you feel you can go after bowling. There are other phases, where you have to give respect to the bowlers,” he said. “Visualisation is something that I have always worked on and will continue to work on. Before the game I try to visualise how bowlers will try to get me out. My strengths and weaknesses against each bowler.”
Unfortunately for Smaran and Karnataka, nothing really went their way in the final. He says: “The bowlers tried really hard, we came (hard) at them. Jammu and Kashmir were meant to win the final. They have also put in a lot of hard work to reach where they are. God was kind to them, providing them with the victory for the hard work and sacrifices they have made.
“We were unlucky a lot of times during the game. Lots of beats, lots of edges that fell short. The ball hit the stumps, the bails didn’t fall. But it is a learning curve for all of us. It isn’t guaranteed just because you have a stellar season, you can win the championship.”
The conversation soon veered towards the upcoming IPL. Smaran, who was laid low by an injury last year, will again be part of the SRH set-up. Lest we forget that even in T20 cricket, Smaran has showcased the traits to switch gears as and when needed. Who can forget his game-breaking hundred in a Maharaja Trophy match versus Mysore Warriors a couple of seasons ago? Even for Karnataka, he has a healthy strike rate of 162.45 in T20 cricket.
“The main thing would be depending on the role that is given to me. I would like to play my role to the best of my ability,” he said. “IPL is a fast-moving game, T20 is generally fast-paced. We have a lot of side-armers (at SRH’s preparatory camp), it is more about getting adjusted to this format. Getting adjusted to how the IPL goes, this is my first full season as a player in the IPL.
“So I think the next 10 days leading up to the tournament will be very crucial where I figure out a lot of things with regard to my batting — what shots I can play against which bowler? The next 10 days I have to utilise in a very useful manner in order to get myself prepared for the matches.”
The SRH franchise has enough stalwarts in their ranks, including Pat Cummins (currently out injured), Heinrch Klaasen, Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan and others. Smaran had this to say on gaining valuable insights from some of the finest T20 cricketers going around. “I had a lot of conversations last year and this year as well. They are the stalwarts of the T20 format. A lot of conversations went with regard to how they prepare for the game.
“What preparations they have done to become so good in this format. How stable Klaasen is when hitting. Bat speed, head position… what kind of practice does he do to get where he is now,” he noted. “Every person’s preparation is very individualistic. Some guys like to bat a lot of volume, some guys just want to feel good and bat a few balls. Even for me, it depends on how I am batting. If I feel that I have to bat a lot of balls, hit a lot of deliveries, I will do that. If I am feeling good, it is more about middling the ball and knocking it around.”
Many moons ago, Smaran began his cricketing journey as an off-spinner. During his junior days, he had once bagged 30 wickets during a season. But he was destined to become one of the bedrocks of Karnataka’s batting line-up. It was his infectious energy to improve by small percentages that stood out. As his childhood coach once told RevSportz: “I was in search of characters, who can display that they are fighters on the field.
“A few days after Smaran had joined us, we had one tournament. He fielded really well. I kept on promoting him. Even though he wasn’t (always) in the playing XI, he was so active – filling the water bottles. Outside the boundary line, it used to feel that (imitating others) he was stopping or catching the ball. That is something that attracted me, that there is something in him.”
A few years later, he missed out on selection for the Under-19 World Cup. Yet, Smaran didn’t lose track of his vision — to achieve higher honours. It would take a brave man to bet against Smaran scaling more peaks. That includes fulfilling the dream of steering Karnataka to a Ranji title, completing his MBA, and wearing the national colours.
Follow Revsportz for latest sports news