2017-18 Ranji Trophy: 5 best performers from the second round

#4 Krishnappa Gowtham

Exactly a month back, Karnataka all-rounder Krishnappa Gowtham was banned by the BCCI for missing a Duleep Trophy match by producing a medical certificate stating that he is suffering from Typhoid and a couple of days later, he was spotted playing in the Karnataka Premier League.

As a result, he has been dropped from the India A squad for the two four-day fixtures against the visiting New Zealand A side and was suspended for disciplinary reasons amounting to "gross insult to the system". Later, he apologized for what happened and the BCCI accepted the apology and lifted the suspension imposed on him.

Playing in Karnataka's Ranji Trophy season opener against Assam in Mysore, Gowtham was the start of the show as his all-round efforts helped his team win the match by an innings and 121 runs and take home the seven points that were at stake.

His spell of 4-20 in 12 overs on day 1 helped the hosts dismiss Assam for just 145 in the first innings. Coming to bat at 190/3, Gowtham hit 10 fours and six sixes in his knock of 149 runs that came off just 170 balls and gave his team a massive first-innings lead of 324 runs.

In the second innings, the Assam batsmen showed some fight but that was not enough of them to save the match as they were bundled out for 203. K Gowtham was among the wickets in the second innings too as he picked up three wickets for 31 runs, taking his match tally to 7/51 apart from scoring 149 runs with the bat.