Manvanth Kumar - Karnataka's newest all-round sensation destined for more

It was on the sidelines of Match 4 of the Maharaja Trophy 2023 at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru when this writer first saw the Hubli Tigers' Manvanth Kumar L get ready at the top of his mark.

As he was about to run in, Utham Aiyappa, a fellow fast-bowling all-rounder in Karnataka, told this writer:

"Watch out for this lad."

It came from someone who had played a lot of cricket with Manvanth at the grassroots level in Mysore. You could immediately see just why it was said, as a few deliveries into his spell, the lanky 19-year-old seam-bowling all-rounder gave the impression of someone with a limitless ceiling.

Rushing the batters off the surface with extra bounce, he finished with 3/21 in his three-over quota as the Hubli Tigers trumped the Gulbarga Mystics without breaking a sweat.

Any possible notion of that spell potentially being a one-off were to be quelled throughout the course of the Maharaja Trophy. With 22 wickets, Manvanth sat atop the wicket-takers' list alongside Gulbarga Mystics' Abhilash Shetty as the Tigers, led by seasoned campaigner Manish Pandey, went on to lift the cup on the back of a thrilling finale against the Mysore Warriors.

The buzz around Manvanth had intensified over the course of those two weeks and a bit in August. After all, a fast-bowling all-rounder who bats left-handed, bowls right-handed and is an agile fielder? Surely he's a big deal?

We won't get into that, though, and put any sort of undue pressure on the player, for time will take its course. But there is a lot to like about the youngster - not just in terms of his skill on the field but the crisp yet grounded responses he had in a free-flowing conversation with Sportskeeda.

It starts with the beginning of it all - the interesting genesis of Manvanth Kumar, the all-rounder.

"I first began playing cricket with my father and brother. My brother still plays cricket and that’s how it began. I was first an opening batter at the U14 and U16 level and I wasn’t concentrating much on my bowling. But they started to view me as a bowler last year. In the first match of the zonal tournament I took seven wickets. That’s where my journey as an all-rounder began," says Manvanth.

Training regimes and fitness drills are a big part of an all-rounder's development. Manvanth approaches it in a different manner when it comes to focusing on both aspects of his game.

"Everyone says as an all-rounder I have to eat well and work out well in the gym. But I don’t worry much about that. My process is going to the gym, focusing on weight training and specifically concentrating on batting one day and bowling on another.”

The youngster also believes, perhaps smartly, that mixing the preparation for different skills would only put more pressure on him. But to add to that rarity of being a fast-bowler, he’s ambidextrous, and it’s something he values too.

"I have batted left-handed and bowled right-handed since my childhood. There are a lot of right-handed bowlers but not enough left-handed batters so that’s a bit of an advantage," a confident Manvanth agrees.

In that regard, the man he looks up to is as good an example as any among all-rounders who do the same.

"I really like Ben Stokes a lot. Be it his attitude, the way he plays or his aggression, I really like that. So I consider him as my role model."

Manvanth didn't have much to do with the bat at the Maharaja Trophy, but he showed glimpses of why he is rated as highly as he is on three separate occasions.

One of them was during a tricky chase of 106 against the Bengaluru Blasters, with the Tigers stumbling at 55/4. Manvanth maneuvered the ball around in the company of Pandey while also using his long levers to great effect as his 19-ball 28 killed the chase. This was after he bagged 4/15 with the ball, by the way.

The other was in the final against the Mysore Warriors, where he contributed 14 runs off five deliveries, including two sixes, as he walked out to bat in the 18th over. Despite the magnitude of the occasion, he came up trumps, and we'll get to his bigger moment of glory in just a bit.

In between those was a game against the Shivamogga Lions, where the Tigers found themselves reeling at 71/5 in another dicey chase of 131. Lions skipper and leg-spinner Shreyas Gopal weaved magic in the powerplay on a pitch that assisted him.

Having picked up 4/12 off his first three overs, he held himself back for the 14th over against a well-set KL Shrijith and Manvanth. The latter didn't spare him, though, clobbering three massive sixes to not only dent Gopal's figures but also bury the chase for all practical purposes.

It was yet another sign of not just his talent, but his ability to meet pressure in the eye and get the better of it.

Manvanth’s death bowling — a happy surprise for everyone

As a bowler, Manvanth is not necessarily rapid but that's where his strength lies - he's deceptively quick off the surface and rushes batters. Couple that with a high release point, and skiddy bounce becomes another tangible factor.

"It has come naturally to me. I look to hit those hard lines and lengths. I look to stick to those areas and not try anything extra. When I release it from the height I do, I get that extra bounce," says Manvanth.

Pandey stood as an umpire in the Tigers’ pre-season practice matches, giving tips to all his bowlers. Manvanth was impressive and got rewarded with a debut in the first match.

“I was playing for the first time so I was a bit nervous. But later on, everything on the outside stopped affecting me. Even if someone shouted, I didn’t care because it was all about being involved in the match. Plus, when you have Pandey Ji as the captain, you need to be focused on the game else he will shout at you (laughs).”

You’d feel that even though they kept their new exciting asset in the playing 11, the Tigers would surely try to protect him a bit?

Well, Pandey and Vinay Kumar (the Tigers' mentor and one of the finest pacers produced by Karnataka) had other plans. As they racked up wins and got more and more comfortable in the points table, they started pushing Manvanth to the back end a bit more. They saw him for who he was — more than your friendly hit-the-hard-lengths pacer.

“My mentor Vinay sir came to me one day and said, 'If a batter gets beaten on two same deliveries, bowl the same ball a third time.' He told me to not try anything different on the third ball, and that’s what I kept in my mind. When I started to bowl in the death overs, I wasn’t thinking about whether the batter would try to go after me or not, I just expressed my strengths. Whether or not he hit me, I just used to stick to my strong zone.”

This strong zone was wide outside the off-stump, and Manvanth took that advice like a glucose drip to his vein. He kept bowling there again and again anytime he was asked to bowl after the 15th over.

The length was the same, the line was the same. The only variation was the knuckle ball.

Yes, that delivery which takes years to master and is still not mastered by many in the Indian team, was used by this teenager to good effect. Even if they were expecting it, they couldn’t read it. And Manvanth had an interesting explanation for it.

“Everyone’s asking me the same thing - how did you learn the knuckleball? My arm is a bit long. I am tall and my hand is long too so I get a bit of extra grip. I practiced it a lot last year and the results are showing…Even my teammates are surprised because it’s not easy to bowl the knuckle ball. It takes a lot of practice because getting that release right is difficult,” he says.

When push came to shove, with the Mysore Warriors requiring 12 off six deliveries to win in the final, he was given the responsibility of the final over.

Warriors’ Shivkumar Rakshith was fooled by the knuckle ball on the first delivery and handed a catch to backward point. Jagadeesha Suchith seemingly read it well two balls later and smacked it down the ground but a sensational save from Pandey came to the nervous youngster’s rescue. Suchith also got out to a slower one on the fifth ball, and Manvanth became the hero of the eight-run title-clinching win.

“I actually didn’t expect to bowl the final over,” Manvanth recalled. “We had Vidwath Kaverappa who is an experienced bowler so I thought I’d probably bowl the 18th or 19th over, finish my quota and then Vidwath would bowl the final over. But what happened was completely different - Vidwath bowled the 18th over and I was given the last over. I don’t know what was running in his (Pandey’s) mind but I felt really happy that I got the last over. I was very happy to take it on. It was destined that I had to bowl the last over and win the match. It was a completely magical moment.”

Well, destiny and last-over stories is another thing he has in common with his idol.

Learning from the big names

Karnataka cricket is a storehouse of experience both on and off the field. But for KL Rahul, who was in the final stages of his recovery before joining India's Asia Cup squad, just about every household name who was fit and available - from Mayank Agarwal to Karun Nair - took part in the Maharaja Trophy this year.

Manvanth was open about tapping into all that experience. His opponents didn't pay a blind eye to his talent either.

"I was really happy. The support staff at the Hubli Tigers was really good - we had MAK (Mansur Ali Khan) sir, Yere (Goud) sir and Vinay sir as our mentor which was the biggest advantage for me as a fast-bowler. Be it Mayank or Ravikumar Samarth, they came and interacted with me and encouraged me that I’m playing well and to take it forward, look after my body and recover well. They also gave me a lot of tips on what I could have bowled better, that I could have taken more time with the bat, why did I play those shots too early.”

He added that there’s still a lot to be learned, and after such a performance, he’d surely get more chances to do so.

A bright start and a brighter path ahead

It was unsurprising that Manvanth's exploits at the first time of asking earned him a berth in Karnataka's list of probables for the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. Following this was a chance to bowl at India's Asian Games-bound squad in a practice game in Alur - a match that Karnataka won comprehensively against the eventual gold medal winners.

What did come as a surprise, though, was his name not a part of the final squad for the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, which is now on floors. It's a reflection of the cut-throat competition for spots in a team like Karnataka, that Manvanth has narrowly missed out on. Nevertheless, he is part of the U23 squad and is bound to make the step up soon enough.

It goes without saying that it's just a matter of time, though. Especially when scouts in the IPL have taken due note of his performances and skill, as Manvanth attended a trial with the Delhi Capitals along with some of his other teammates from the state.

"I have done well so everyone thinks I will play in the IPL soon. I also have that in my mind. I want to be a part of the IPL and make my debut. My experience in the DC camp was good. It was four days long. The first day was the nets session, then match simulation, then nets, and then match simulation again. Pravin Amre sir was there and shared his experience on how I can improve my bowling and bat better. There were experienced players too — Lalit Yadav and Abhishek Porel — they also shared their experience about how IPL is and what I can improve. I liked all that too and felt that I could learn by staying around these people too."

The last three months or so have been a rollercoaster ride for Manvanth. For a lad not expecting to play every game at the Maharaja Trophy, he has cast himself as someone to keep an keen eye out for with regards to the ever-gossiped fast-bowling all-rounder positon in Indian domestic and national teams. A massive gallop in his development later, he seems destined - and is certainly hungry - for more.

“I do think about it,” he says. “If you want to make a big name for yourself, go to the highest level, you need to dream big. I try and give my 100% as much as possible and play the same way in every match.”

This exclusive was jointly covered by Featured Writers Rudransh Khurana and Sooryanarayanan Sesha.

Manvanth Kumar L is represented by the talent management company Square The One Sports.