KS Bharat Story: The four-Test series between India and Australia began on Thursday (February 9) in Nagpur. Team India gave two players a chance to play in the Test for the first time in this match. Wicket-keeper batsman KS Bharat got the debut cap along with Suryakumar Yadav, who batted stormy in T20 and ODIs. Bharat got a chance due to Rishabh Pant’s injury. Similarly, Suryakumar Yadav got a place when Shreyas Iyer was injured.
Bharat’s journey has not been easy. Bharat’s father Srinivasa Rao, a resident of Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh, is a dockyard worker in the Navy. His mother Kona Devi is a housewife. He used to skip school and play cricket for fun.
In an interview, Shrikar Bharat told that when he used to play cricket in the street, the neighbors used to get very upset. He has broken the glasses of the neighbors’ houses several times. The people around were constantly complaining to the father. Fed up with this, the father sent him to the cricket academy.
Bharat’s match or his training time was from nine in the morning to four in the evening. After this the schools used to close. Bharat used to avoid going to school. He was good at studies, but did not want to go to school.
Bharath was first included in the state team at the age of 16. After this the father started paying attention to his game. When the father asked him to choose between cricket and studies, Bharat took the name of cricket. Then his story went ahead.
At the age of 16, Bharat became the wicketkeeper for the first time. He was asked by the coach to wear gloves. Bharat was selected as a wicketkeeper in the Under-19 state team. Slowly he was moving forward. Shrikar told in the interview given to BCCI that he never wanted to move fast. He only focused on the process.
Bharat, who played first-class match for the first time in 2013, was included in Team India in 2019. Then he was chosen as the cover for Wriddhiman Saha. However, he did not get a chance to play a single match in the series against Bangladesh.
When Team India’s jersey reached Bharat, he was very happy. He said, “It is a matter of great happiness. I remembered everything from where I started. When I started playing in the first class, I did not think at all that I would be able to play Tests.
Bharat further said, “My coach J Krishna Rao had a lot of faith in me. He felt that I had a lot of potential. I made my debut for India A in 2018. Rahul Dravid was the head coach at that time. I played for India A in England. Rahul sir was with us at that time.”
Bharat said, “I had a talk with Rahul sir in England. I asked him how do I take my game to the next level and he said just be yourself. He told me once that this is your chance. Challenge yourself. You don’t have to prove it to anyone else.”
KS Bharath has got a big tattoo done on his chest. In this he has named his parents as Gudwa., He doesn’t hesitate to show off his tattoos. Bharat has shown this many times.