IPL world welcomes hyped Cariappa, but it's too soon to solve the mystery

The announcement from Gautam Gambhir that KC Cariappa was in Kolkata Knight Riders’ XI for the IPL match between defending champions and Royal Challengers Bangalore at the Eden Gardens immediately sparked the crowd. The unknown Cariappa generated much hype when he was snapped up by KKR during the IPL auction for Rs 2.4 crore, and now fans would get a chance to see their latest “mystery spinner” for the first time. This was a 20-year-old thrown straight into the deep end by the KKR management against a side boasting of probably the most fearsome Indian, South African and West Indian batsmen in Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers and Chris Gayle. It was a bold decision stemming from KKR’s confidence and their home advantage — they’ve won their last five matches at Eden Gardens — and even though they eventually lost, the readiness to give the youngster a chance so soon is commendable. [caption id=“attachment_2102131” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  KC Cariappa. Facebook[/caption] During the auction, when KKR’s purchase suddenly shone the spotlight on someone who was already known as an emerging player in cricketing circles, Cariappa was immediately tagged as a mystery spinner. Speculation about what sort of bowler he is and comparisons with players like Ajantha Mendis and Sunil Narine soon followed before the dust settled — until it was disturbed on Saturday night in the quest to uncover the unknown. But 12 deliveries later, Cariappa is still a mystery. A dozen balls in T20 cricket is just not enough to judge a player who will, hopefully, have enough opportunity to prove himself. And to give you perspective, here’s what his two overs went for: 0-6-0-4-1-1-4-1-1-4-6-wicket. This included six balls to Gayle (12 runs), five to De Villiers (15 runs) and one to Dinesh Karthik (one run). Cariappa’s deliveries promised a lot, but he ran into De Villiers and Gayle when they were desperate to score and were hitting the ball well. If you want a short analysis, here it is — there was some leg-break, a googly which he hardly tried to disguise, and some conventional off-break too. He bowled flat and flighted it on a couple occasions — his only drawback was length — either too full or too short. What we have learnt is that Cariappa has a lot of variation — but he also has the mental strength. De Villiers had hit two fours and a six in his second over when the Bangalorean sent in a flatter and faster arm ball which skidded off the surface, beat the charging De Villiers — allowing Robin Uthappa to complete the stumping. It was a crucial wicket in KKR’s fight to defend a 178-run target — and De Villiers was scoring at a strike rate of over 200 when he was dismissed. Gambhir could have brought him back but decided he had had enough for the night. In all honesty, while it is exciting to dissect Cariappa the bowler (his every ball was cheered or jeered on Twitter), it is too early — and not the right platform to judge him on. “Till the age of 21 at the state and age-group level at least, there should be no exposure to T20 cricket. Kids should play only three- or four-day cricket - learn to flight to ball, learn to get hit. By getting hit your natural survival instinct kicks in. Right now the natural instinct in T20 is to bowl quick. When you do that you cannot go back and bowl in four-day cricket, where you are trying to prise out a wicket,” former India spinner Murali Kartik said in an interview to ESPNCricinfo last year. Kartik also added that a spinner needs at least 7-8 cricket seasons to understand his bowling. But this is a sporting age where impatience and urgency for results trumps all other cards. It is also a time when chances come few and far for new talent to make it to the top. That’s is why the cricketing world needs to give Cariappa more time. He may have started off on a mixed footing — and is possibly exposed to the wrong format — but either way, it is too soon to write him off or even create unnecessary hype.