"I had my bags packed when Akash Deep called me to tell me I wasn't in the squad" - Shreevats Goswami opens up on overcoming selection heartbreaks
A quick glance at Shreevats Goswami’s Twitter (now X) handle reveals many things about the man that you might not immediately associate with him while watching him play or even conversing with him. Throwback pictures with close friends, including a certain Virat Kohli, philosophical notes about the underappreciated beauty of railway stations, and shrewd cricketing takes are just some of the highlights that decorate his timeline.
Interestingly, and rather understandably, there’s not much about his playing career, which commenced prior to what can be called the social media era. After all, the plucky southpaw made his domestic bow back in April 2008, even before the inaugural edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) monopolized television screens all over the world, but shortly after he managed to clinch the 2008 U19 World Cup alongside the likes of Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja.
After featuring for the Boys in Blue in their victorious campaign, it was only natural that Goswami would immediately make the step up to the IPL level. And his IPL career started off on the best possible note. He was named the Emerging Player of the Year for his contributions to the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in the inaugural edition of the league, in which he tallied 82 runs in three innings, including what would turn out to be his only half-century.
Following that, it seemed as if Goswami’s opportunities in the IPL would blossom, but fate had other ideas. He played just two matches in 2009 and one in 2010 for RCB, managing a respectable 61 runs. A shift to the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in 2011 didn’t pan out as expected, with the keeper-batter playing five matches and failing to make an impact.
Goswami then made his way to the Rajasthan Royals (RR), a franchise known to bring the best out of uncapped talent, even in the early stages of the IPL. He featured in 11 of RR’s 16 matches, marking a career-high in games played during a single edition of the league. However, he batted in only six of those 11 matches. And his batting position was anything but stable - he played two innings at No. 3, two at No. 4, one at No. 7, and one at No. 8.
Over the course of the 2011 and 2012 seasons, Goswami’s wicket-keeping was a standout. He was involved in as many as 13 dismissals, with five stumpings to his name. Despite that, though, the left-hander would have to wait until IPL 2018 to add to his sparse collection of caps.
In an exclusive interview with Sportskeeda, the eloquent and straightforward Goswami opens up on a variety of topics, including his stop-start IPL career, his domestic exploits, and much more.
"My whole IPL journey can be summed up by a lack of opportunities in the playing XI. Sometimes, I’ve done well and immediately been replaced by someone else, and I don’t know how fair that was. During the initial stages too, I was the Emerging Player of the Year, and I expected the next one to be my breakthrough season in which I would play most of the games. But I ended up playing even fewer games, and the reasons for that are unknown," he recollects.
"I don’t have any regret or remorse regarding all that; I’m absolutely fine. I’ve learned how to grow as an individual, if you start cribbing about things, you won’t be at peace. I’ve learnt so many things from the IPL - learning new languages and talking to foreign players, understanding their cultures, cricket-wise. In life and in sport, you fail more than you succeed. I sometimes wish I got more opportunities in the IPL to prove myself, but I don’t have any hard feelings about anything," Goswami adds.
"I was shocked!" - Shreevats Goswami looks back on Bengal axing
The SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH) handed Goswami another lease of life in the aftermath of the better part of a decade of relentless run-scoring in the domestic circuit. He turned out in eight matches for the Orange Army over three seasons starting in 2018, batting just five times and managing a high score of 35.
In domestic cricket, Goswami was as consistent as ever. In fact, it’s safe to say that he was finally finding his groove in the shortest format, upping his strike rate and improving his range around the wicket. In five matches in the 2021 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, he hammered 158 runs at an average of 39.5 and a strike rate of 132.77 for Bengal, who narrowly missed out on the knockout stages despite finishing second in their group.
Rather astonishingly, Goswami was sidelined from the Bengal T20 squad soon after. It felt like his participation at the top level ended just when he was brushing aside the notion that he wasn’t explosive enough for the modern game. Does he agree?
"You’re absolutely bang-on, there. I feel like my T20 career ended at my peak. During the last few seasons, my strike rate was around 140-150 and I was averaging about 40. I was the highest run-scorer in T20s in Bengal. Then I went to the IPL and I didn't play any games. I went to the UK to play club cricket, and then COVID happened in Dubai," Goswami says.
"Bengal was having a local T20 tournament, which I couldn’t play because of the IPL. I came back from the IPL expecting to be picked for the T20 squad. Why not? I remember, I had my bags packed when Akash Deep called me to tell me, ‘Bhaiya, you’re not in the squad.’ I was shocked!" he recalls.
Fans of domestic cricket, at the time, assumed that Bengal wanted to move towards a younger side. Teams generally don’t lean towards picking an experienced backup wicket-keeper, and that’s perhaps why Goswami missed out. Wriddhiman Saha being in the mix played a part as well. However, it was a touch unfortunate that a player of his stature within the state was dropped, that too in the absence of clear communication.
![Shreevats Goswami [right] played plenty of key innings for Bengal over the years](https://statico.sportskeeda.com/editor/2023/09/a1466-16937480940725-1920.jpg)
Even with Saha in the picture, there was perhaps a case for Goswami, who had established himself as a dependable gloveman with his performances in the previous limited-overs competitions, to be Bengal’s first choice in the white-ball formats.
SRH had placed a fair amount of faith in Goswami by signing him for INR 1 crore at the IPL 2018 auction, but after a domestic season in which he was conspicuous by his absence, they had little reason to keep him in the fold.
The veteran is entirely cognizant of the same, noting that being dropped from the Bengal squad, in all likelihood, was the final nail in the coffin as far as his IPL career was concerned. He wasn’t even part of the auction list for the 2023 campaign.
"As an IPL franchise, you’re looking at domestic cricket. I didn’t play the whole season for SunRisers, and the next time they’ll look at domestic cricket to see how this guy’s doing. I didn’t play any games, and once they see it, they won’t find a season to not put you in the auction. In the auction, I didn’t get picked, which was very surprising. I couldn’t find out why. But I expect these things. I always go about my life preparing for the worst-case scenario. These things happen, but I was definitely surprised. And then my IPL career just went down,” Goswami states.
Interestingly, even Saha doesn’t turn out for Bengal anymore, potentially hinting at clear issues with the way senior players are treated by the board. Goswami looks back on the final phase of his first stint with Bengal, which didn’t end in a manner befitting a player who served the state well across formats for well over a decade.
"I had meetings with the concerned officials. Unfortunately, though, even after speaking to them, I wasn’t picked and wasn’t given any valid reasons for my exclusion. If I remember correctly, I later got just one chance in that season, where I scored 22 off 10 balls and unfortunately got run out. And that was it! That was my last game for Bengal,” he says.
Goswami was inevitably bound to search for greener pastures, and he settled upon a move to Mizoram. The Plate Group is rather infamous for its standard of cricket - is it justified to view performances in the group as “inferior”? The 34-year-old is refreshingly frank in his assessment of the same.
“Yes, I think it’s justified. Scoring a hundred is hard work, no matter where you score it, but those runs shouldn’t hold value in the longer run, for example to be picked in the Indian team. Runs are runs, wickets are wickets, because they take effort. In fact, sometimes it takes even more hard work to perform in the Plate Group because of the lack of motivation you have. There’s more onus on the professionals. Without taking that ability away from them, those runs shouldn’t count in the bigger picture. The standard of bowling and atmosphere you will face at the top level is completely different,” he admits.
I think I've missed the IPL and India bus, and I'm okay with that: Shreevats Goswami content with his career so far
Despite playing for a Plate Group side last year and pursuing other ventures outside the field of play, including commentary, punditry and other media-related work, Goswami, like any top athlete, must still have the drive to be the best version of himself. Does he still harbor hopes of returning to the highest level?
"Absolutely [the fire is still within me]. But I also know the reality. I am not naive or stupid anymore. I don’t like to hope for or expect something that isn’t going to happen, because that is only going to add more anxiety and stress on me. I’m not living in oblivion saying that I’m the best," he tells Sportskeeda.
"I don’t expect to get to the IPL anymore or play for India anymore; I think I’ve missed that bus. If I get picked, I’ll be happy. Most of the things that have happened in my career have happened when I least expected them. When I expected them, I would miss out and get disappointed. The fire is still there, I would still love to play a top level of cricket. But if I don’t get it, I’m okay with it," Goswami signs off.
From a “naive” fresh-faced teenager who played an underrated role for India in the 2008 U19 World Cup to a grizzled veteran of the unforgiving modern game, Goswami has grown as a cricketer and as a person. A return to Bengal is on the cards for the upcoming domestic season, and only time will tell where his journey takes him.