Shivakant Shukla      

In the semi-final of the 2008-09 Ranji Trophy, Shivakant Shukla batted for 821 minutes to score an unbeaten 178 to take Uttar Pradesh through to their third final in four years. In the final, by the time he got out for 99 he had spent more than 20 hours between dismissals. But Shukla had scored only two centuries in 28 previous first-class matches. That he kept getting chances to play for UP was a minor miracle.

A left-hand opening batsman, Shukla comes from the same Under-19 batch as Suresh Raina, Irfan Pathan, Piyush Chawla, Dinesh Karthik, Robin Uthappa and VRV Singh. He saw all of his U-19 team-mates progress to higher levels while he struggled to find his feet in domestic cricket. The lack of infrastructure and technical guidance in UP didn't help either. But when in NCA to correct his offspin action, he worked with batting coach Mattau Owen, who has worked with the likes of Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara, and came back a more compact batsman. He was selected for the Central Zone team for Duleep Trophy after his heroics in the knock-out matches.

Cricinfo Staff January 2009