Talent and technique, without numbers to substantiate the same, falls on deaf ears, and R Samarth bore the brunt of such criticism early this season.
The pressure only amplified since Karnataka weren’t putting up champion like numbers with their depleted-still-competent line-up. Samarth drew some of that flak for scoring 15 runs in the first three innings.
Subsequently, he was dropped in favour of Mayank Agarwal, but once the Indian Test opener was asked by the Board of Control for Cricket in India to sit the game out, the management had little choice but to revert to Samarth. He responded with 86 and 34. The next game he put up 63 and 74 against Saurashtra.
Though the duck against Railways wasn’t ideal, Samarth had already proved a point. And on Tuesday, he reiterated. On a demonic Navule pitch in Shivamogga, the 27-year-old put up a classic 105 from 278 balls with six fours.
“Nothing changed,” said Samarth when asked if he did anything different after the early hiccups in the season. “I didn’t do anything different. I’m in that zone. I have maintained that I have been batting well. It was just a matter of that one innings. I think it just came and hopefully, it continues. I rate this innings highly.”
With Karnataka tottering at 83 for 3 and Samarth’s outside edge seeing more than its share of leather, the opener needed to dig deep for this one. “In the first two sessions, the ball did a lot. The ball moved quite a bit off the pitch. It was important for me to play out the new ball first and then continue and build that innings. In the previous games, I had got starts… getting 50s-60s and got out. We had spoken before this game that whoever gets in should get a big one. I think I just got a big one today.”
After bringing up the triple-figure mark with a drive on the rise through cover, Samarth celebrated with a David Warner-esque leap before taking off his helmet and his gloves to put a finger on his lips. When asked about a celebration so unlike him, he said: “It wasn’t dedicated to anyone. It was just for myself. I was trying to silence myself and keep calm and not talk too much.”