The shukrana of Siddarth Kaul

Sandhya was an international-level gymnast. Her husband, Tej, had played first-class cricket for Jammu and Kashmir in the 1970s. Her older son, Uday, had made his Ranji Trophy debut. The younger son, Siddarth Kaul, wasn't really making the most of his cricketing talent, however, and making excuses to avoid going for practice.

"I did not like going to the ground," Kaul tells ESPNcricinfo. "I loved playing in our street because when you play there, you don't think you have to achieve this or that. You play for enjoyment, and I had started playing for that enjoyment only."

Sandhya felt Kaul was wasting his time. She knew the importance of the early years in a sportsperson's life and decided it was time for a now-or-never talk with her son.

"She said, 'You are not even good at studies, so we cannot even say you focus there. If you are good at cricket, why not start playing at the right platform?"

That was just the push Kaul needed. A couple of years later, in 2008, he was India's highest wicket-taker at the Under-19 World Cup, and lifted the trophy with the likes of Virat Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja.

Over the years, Kaul's wicket-taking ability and death-bowling skills made him a key member of the Punjab team in domestic cricket. He showcased, and further refined, his yorkers and slower ones during his time with Sunrisers Hyderabad in the IPL from 2017 to 2021.

This domestic season, after 16 years in the sport, the boy who "never used to think of playing on a big platform" became the all-time leading wicket-taker in the Vijay Hazare Trophy and the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, India's premier domestic List A and T20 tournaments. He displaced Piyush Chawla from the top of the charts in both formats.

In 75 matches in the Vijay Hazare Trophy, Kaul has 155 wickets at an average of 20.21. His seven five-fors are also a tournament record. In the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, he has 120 wickets from 87 games and an economy rate of 7.02.

When Kaul began taking cricket seriously, he had three dreams: to represent India in Tests, ODIs and T20Is. But it was not easy to fulfil them. While the talent was always there, he says he made "a few mistakes" that resulted in "some setbacks".

"When you are young, your mindset is different," he says. "You think you know everything. So I would argue over small, small things. Young blood, you know. So things happened."

It took a decade of hard work after his junior-cricket success to find his direction again. Earlier, it was his mother who had helped him focus. Now, age and experience guided him both on and off the field, and in 2018, he made his T20I and ODI debuts for India.

Kaul played only three games in each format before falling out of the reckoning. There was more work to be done and he was back on the domestic circuit, putting in the hard yards.

But the boy who thought he knew everything was long gone. A feeling of gratitude - or shukrana, as Kaul puts it in Punjabi - is now his default emotion. Ask him about becoming the highest wicket-taker in both white-ball domestic tournaments, and he says:

"Every cricketer dreams of reaching a platform where people recognise him and his hard work. So yes, it's a big achievement, but if the Punjab Cricket Association had not selected me for those age-group tournaments back then, this would not have been possible."

In 2022, Aavishkar Salvi, the former India and Mumbai fast bowler, was appointed Punjab's head coach. Kaul says Salvi has also helped him hone his skills and mindset.

"He is someone who knows a lot about fast bowling, and his reading of the game is outstanding," Kaul says. "He keeps giving me these little inputs, which have really helped me."

Salvi pointed out to Kaul that depending on his performances, his mindset was fluctuating and this was feeding back into his bowling. Kaul checked his journal, which he maintains regularly, and realised that when he was bowling well, his only thought - irrespective of the match situation - was how to make his team win.

"Now, whether I am bowling well or not, I try to make sure my mindset is always positive," Kaul says. "Be it in terms of my bowling, my routines, or my body language."

In the recent Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, he was the joint fourth-highest wicket-taker as Punjab won a domestic title after 30 years. He bettered this effort in the Vijay Hazare Trophy, where he topped the wicket-takers' list with 19 from six games.

Salvi is all praise for Kaul's wicket-taking ability. "Every eighth ball he bowled in the [Syed Mushtaq Ali] tournament with the new ball, he picked up a wicket," he says. "That's a very difficult task. And it's not just one season; he has done it season after season. He has been playing regularly for the last 13 years; to maintain that consistency is not easy."

In the lead-up to this season, Kaul also worked on his batting. "It's not like I could not bat earlier," he says. "I had scored 47 once. In [first-class] cricket, I have a fifty as well. But in the nets, I would neglect my batting. This time I thought let's work on it a bit more.

"When you are bowling to a lower-middle-order batter, you typically bowl a bouncer and then a full ball to get him out. To overcome my unease against the short ball, I started drills with the tennis ball, then underarm with the leather ball, and then with the sidearm. Avinash, our throwdown specialist, helped me a lot in the off-season. He would bowl to me for an hour, an hour and a half in the nets."

Kaul did not get to bat in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy but showed his ability in the Vijay Hazare Trophy. Until the start of the season, he had averaged 7.61 and struck at 58.27 in List A cricket. This season brought him 104 runs in five innings at an average of 34.66 and a strike rate of 97.19.

Kaul cherished all this success even more, given that it came after what he describes as the "hardest phase" of his life. In March, a nerve injury in the right leg had left him bedridden. He was part of the Royal Challengers Bangalore squad for IPL 2023 but was unavailable for the first half of the season. By the time he got fit, the team management decided not to disturb the combination that had worked well for them until then.

In November, he was released by RCB. And despite all the wickets and runs in domestic cricket, he didn't get a bid at the 2024 auction. But he shrugs it off.

"The show must go on," he says. "If I get disheartened by this, I won't be able to play any cricket. When I was taking my class 10 exams, I would pray I pass somehow. My name was on the auction shortlist, so I have passed this exam. If I was picked, then I would have been a topper.

"The franchises did what they thought was best for them. Now I have to do what is best for me. There is always a next time. I will get another chance to top, and I am sure I will do that."

Kaul's immediate focus, though, is red-ball cricket. The Ranji Trophy kicked off earlier this month, and neither Kaul nor Punjab made an auspicious start. Playing against Karnataka in Hubballi, Kaul picked up 1 for 94 in the only innings he bowled and made two ducks with the bat. Punjab lost by seven wickets.

He fared much better in Punjab's second game, picking up 4 for 81 in Railways' only innings in Mullanpur to take his tally in first-class cricket to 274. He will have at least five more games this season to push towards 300. But Kaul is not worried about this; his main goal is "to take Punjab into the final".

Kaul made his first-class debut in 2007-08. He is now 33 and by far the most experienced bowler in the Punjab side. But, in his own words, he still plays every game as if it is his first. At the same time, he has not given up on his third dream: to play Test cricket for India.

"I have seen people who start thinking after one point that an India call-up is not possible, and start taking things easy. But this game has given me a lot. People recognise me because of cricket. So I can never give up. Till I am playing, I will give my 110%.

"It's because of this attitude I played for India in 2018. I stayed true to my cricket and got the chance in both white-ball formats.

"And I would love to play Test cricket for India. The other two dreams have been fulfilled, only this one is pending. If I keep performing well, who knows."