Shreevats Goswami

A stylish left-handed batsman and a safe wicket-keeper, Shreevats Goswami was a prolific run-scorer from his junior level. He was picked as the wicket-keeper batsman in India squad for the U19 World Cup which the team won under Virat Kohli’s captaincy. Many fans remember him as a short young Turk who was jumping with joy after India’s memorable U19 World Cup win in 2008. He opened the batting for India and impressed with his strokeplay. He proved to be a safe wicket-keeper and along with his skipper Kohli, Goswami was also acquired by the Royal Challengers Bangalore in the inaugural edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL). 

Cricket came very naturally to him. Just like most of the Indian kids, Goswami started off with tennis ball cricket. He first played cricket with a seasoned ball when he was just 11 and went onto represent Bengal in the U17 and U19 levels. 

It was in 2008 that the promising youngster made his first-class debut against Madhya Pradesh at Gwalior. He failed to make an impression in his debut match and followed it up with another mediocre outing in his List A Debut. However, there was no question mark over his talent and hence he took the flight to Malaysia to play the U19 World Cup and the rest as they say is history. 

It was always going to be a tough task for Goswami to cement his place in the senior Bengal side as Wriddhiman Saha was already in the fray and had a sensational technique behind the stumps. However, with Saha being called up as the second wicket-keeper time and again for India during Dhoni’s reign, Goswami finally made his mark in the first-class circuit in the 2016-17 Ranji Trophy with a knock of 227. 

Owing to his good run in the domestic circuit, Goswami was included in India A squad for the ODI series against New Zealand A in 2017 but his numbers weren’t impressive. He is currently playing for Bengal and is one of the most important players for them. Despite the promise which he showed at the earlier stages of his career, Goswami never managed to replicate it on the biggest stages. 

Goswami made his IPL debut way back in 2008 for the Royal Challengers Bangalore in the inaugural season. In his debut against the Delhi Daredevils, Goswami looked in good touch and scored a fluent half-century off 42 deliveries. Goswami continued his stint with RCB for the first 3 seasons. For the fourth season, the youngster was acquired by KKR but he failed to impress scoring just 22 runs in 7 games. 

Subsequently, he was picked by the Rajasthan Royals in the fifth season. After remaining in the fringe for a few years, Goswami was picked by Sunrisers Hyderabad in the 2018  IPL Auctions for INR 1 crore. He played a few matches for SRH in 2018 owing to Saha’s injury and was also part of the playing XI in the final which was eventually won by the Chennai Super Kings. 

Goswami hardly got any game in the 2019-20 edition of the IPL, and only played 2 matches as SRH were eliminated in qualifiers. 

Ahead of the 2021 season, Goswami was surprisingly retained by the SRH management.

A talented player who is yet to set the stage of fire with his batting, has struggled throughout his career and has toiled hard, but the presence of Wriddhiman Saha in the domestic circuit has meant that Goswami has always been the reserve wicket-keeper batsman for his team.

(As of March 21)