Bowling like Harbhajan, and lessons from Prasanna

In October 2008, Karnataka offspinner K Gowtham received an invitation to bowl at the touring Australian team. Those were the days when his action had a striking resemblance to that of his idol Harbhajan Singh, who was still in his prime and bowling alongside Anil Kumble in India's Test side. A lot has changed since, both in Indian cricket and in Gowtham's life.

Before the start of this Ranji Trophy season, it had been three years since Gowtham last played a first-class match. And in the second innings of that match he conceded 206 out of the 718 runs Saurashtra racked up. Cheteshwar Pujara made 352 and knocked Karnataka out in the quarter-finals.

Now, in 2016-17, Gowtham is Karnataka's most successful bowler with 18 wickets in three matches.

"I was inspired by Harbhajan's action and that's how I started it," Gowtham tells ESPNcricinfo. "The moment he saw me with the action, he was pretty surprised. But he told me I wasn't getting side-on completely. I had a semi side-on kind of action, so he told me to rectify that and work a little more on my bowling."

Now Gowtham runs up to the crease slower than before and the Harbhajan imitations have given way to the desire to be his own man.

"I have changed my action completely now," Gowtham says. "Every bowler is unique, and I didn't want to be known as the guy who bowls like Harbhajan. I wanted to be on my own, so I tried out a few actions in the nets and I could bowl even better than previously."

It wasn't like Gowtham blindly followed the man he looked up to, and then woke up one morning and decided not to.

"The way Harbhajan was bowling was completely different from the way I wanted to do things. He could bowl the doosra, but I couldn't. While you're imitating someone, you still have to keep learning new things. Changing the action has helped me, but I have not changed the way I bowl."

Gowtham had the good fortune of running into one of India's best offspinners, Erapalli Prasanna, after he was picked for a camp conducted by the Karnataka State Cricket Association.

"It was a 15-20 day camp and I worked with him," Gowtham says. "And whatever he taught me during that period, I keenly observed, wrote it down, and kept it in the papers in my diary. He told me to work on my run-up and be more consistent. It was more like a friend who's giving you his thoughts on bowling.

"He's a legend by himself and I was a little reluctant to go and ask him, but the moment he saw I was doing something and not getting it right, he came up to me and showed me how it's done. In fact, he demonstrated to me by bowling himself. He asked me, 'how do you plan to get a batsman out?' So I told him, 'either bowled or lbw'. He said I must have more options of getting him at slip, and my main aim should be to get him bowled, because the moment I focus on trying to do that, I have all the options of getting him out, like the lbw, get a caught behind, or get him caught at short leg. He's helped me quite a bit. Whatever the changes you see, they have come through him."

Gowtham's serious career began when he was picked for an Under-15 zonal tournament in Bangalore. He finished as the tournament's second-highest wicket-taker. It wasn't until he progressed to the Under-22 level that he first represented Karnataka. He played against Bengal, picking up four wickets in the match and scoring a half-century to help his side win.

"But, again, there was a period of six-seven years' gap. But I never gave up," he says. "It made me stronger and more mature as a cricketer. It's the same with this period. My fitness, training and routine never changed. I'm regular to practice. If I don't practice, it's like I'm missing something on that day."

A regular fixture in the local leagues, Gowtham worked on being more patient and consistently hitting tight lines. He had a productive 2016-17 Karnataka Premier League, where eight matches yielded 11 wickets and an economy rate of 5.58, just before the start of the Ranji season.

Gowtham bagged 3 for 97 on his return, against Jharkhand in Noida, and recounts a valuable tip he received from Mansur Ali Khan, Karnataka's bowling coach.

"There was one small change that he asked me to make in between the first game [and second]," Gowtham says. "I was running slightly diagonally towards the wicket, but he told me to run in a little straighter and see the difference. It's helping me in a big way. My deliveries were slightly drifting down leg, but now, I have more control over the ball. [Mansur] works very silently and has a very low profile. But he's the one who actually holds the team together; when he says something, it holds a lot of weightage."

Gowtham followed it up with eight wickets - including a maiden five-for - against Delhi, and a career-best 7 for 108 in the second innings against Assam to deliver Karnataka a bonus-point win.

Returning to the team after a lengthy spell in the sidelines, Gowtham feels he was welcomed back warmly. "Almost everyone has played for India or India A, so being a part of it and playing in the XI is an achievement in itself. It really holds a special place and helps me stay motivated. Everyone makes fun of me and I make fun of everyone as well; it's like a barter system. Everyone was happy I was doing well and getting into the team."