Interview - Happy to be talked about as India-material bowler: Assam seamer Krishna Das

Q You made your Ranji Trophy debut against Kerala at Dibrugarh in 2005 under current Assam team head coach K Sanath Kumar – who earlier had a three-year coaching stint – from 2005-2008 – picked you in the side after seeing you bowl in the nets.

For me, K Sanath Kumar sir is like God. It is not often that a coach will see a 15-year-old bowl in the nets and included him in the senior Ranji side. I still remember I snaffled four wickets in that tie against Kerala.

It gave me a lot of joy when K Sanath Kumar sir was again present as head coach when I picked up my 100th Ranji stick against Delhi in Guwahati ten years later.

Q It must have been a special feeling when you prised out Gautam Gambhir to bag your 100th Ranji Trophy wicket.

Gautam Gambhir is a big cricketer, someone I used to look up during my initial days in cricket and to have him as my 100th Ranji scalp was indeed special.

I normally bowl round the wicket to left-handers and I still remember during Delhi’ second innings Arup Das has sustained a hand injury and I started bowling operations – Unmukt Chand flicked my first ball for three runs and then Gautam Gambhir offered a defensive blade to my next ball, and my third delivery nipped back into him as he was caught at the crease.

Q You and your opening bowling partner Arup Das are on a roll this season – you have snared 44 wickets while Arup captured 22 wickets; both have shouldered the main wicket-taking responsibilities of the Assam team.

I have bowled in tandem with Arup for many years now. We are childhood friends and both hail from Barpeta. We have played together at the district, various age-group tourneys as well as at the state level.

We complement each other well and performed well together. It’s all about building pressure from both ends and dry up the runs. Sometimes he stifles the batsmen and I get wickets, and sometimes I keep the batters on a tight leash and he gets the wickets.

Q How comfortable are you with the sobriquet ‘Barpeta Express’?

I think people call me ‘Barpeta Express’ since I hail from Barpeta. I can clock bowling speeds up to 135kmph and will strive hard to surpass that in future.