With the domestic season kicking into full-swing with the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, SportsTiger got a chance to interact with Karnataka-born leg-spinner KC Cariappa at the Rajasthan Royals Cricket Cup. The RR Cricket Cup is an inter-school T10 cricket competition that features over 650 U19 girls from 50-plu schools, representing eight districts of Rajasthan.

After a month-long competition and winners of the respective districts, the teams battled out in the knockouts, played on 19th & 20th October in Jaipur’s Pankaj Singh Academy. Coming back to KC Cariappa, the spin bowling sensation burst onto the scene in 2015 and since then, has been one of the toughest bowlers to face in the domestic circuit.  

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Ahead of the 2023-24 season, KC Cariappa talked about his shift from Karnataka to Mizoram, one of the newest teams on the domestic circuit and how he hopes to help the Land of the Mizo grow a cricketing juggernaut. Further, Cariappa also spoke about the ongoing ICC ODI World Cup 2023 in India and analysed the Indian bowling attack and the impact of spin in marquee tournament. KC Cariappa also answered a few rapid-fire questions as we discussed his dream hattrick, best career dismissal, World Cup semi-finalists and more.

Here’s SportsTiger’s exclusive interview with KC Cariappa.

How are you adapting your change from Karnataka to Mizoram, playing in Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy?

Yeah, so that's been a very good opportunity to come from a very big team for Karnataka. It's a good challenge for me because they have started cricket just five years ago. It's a very good challenge for me also to improve my bowling and share my experience with them. So it's a big challenge that I've taken this year to shift from Karnataka to Mizoram and look to do my best to win games for them. 

What elements are you bringing to the new, younger team like Mizoram, which helps in the holistic development?

So basically what happens with these kinds of teams is that they are into cricket, but they don't know on the outside how to be like a cricketer. For example, they only know how to play and their mentality is just go play. But we as cricketers, think about the game, we do so many things like training, mental preparation and those kinds of things, which they don't know. 

So when I interact with the local cricketers, I just tell them that you need to enjoy your game. Then only your cricket will improve. When you think that you have got a state, and you just want to perform it doesn't work like that. You need to be very calm to play cricket and enjoy your game wherever you play. 

Talking about the ongoing World Cup, any time a big tournament is being played in India, spin is a big conversation. So how do you analyze spin bowling so far in the tournament?

If you see, the Indian team has (Ravindra) Jadeja, a wonderful left-hand spinner, which you can call him also mystery because sometimes he has a lot of variation in left-arm spin. If you see Kuldeep Yadav, he is a proper mystery, a chinaman. He is a different kind of a bowler. Indian pitch works for every spinner and as we have variety in the Indian team, that's the best thing for us. 

Has there been something different about the Indian team’s bowling approach so far in the World Cup?

I think every time it is the same. But this time I think we are bowling really well because Bumrah is back and he is giving that big breakthrough and I think that's the main thing. Similarly, Hardik (Pandya) is also doing his best in bowling and batting, so that is helping our team. Jadeja is a proper all-rounder where he can do everything, batting, bowling, fielding. So those kinds of players are doing well 100 percent which will work for India and they will win all the games. 

Rapid fire questions:

One ball you would like to steal from any bowler.

Sunil Narine's knuckle ball.

Pick three players who will be in your playing XI across any format.

Sanju Samson, Sunil Narine, Trent Boult

What were you doing during the 2011 World Cup?

I was practicing in Bengaluru as a net bowler. I was bowling to all these World Cup teams as I was playing under 19 for my state. I was in KCA, practicing with all the international players.

What is your dream hattrick?

I think I'll go with AB de Villiers, Joe Root and Jos Buttler.

What is your best wicket? 

AB de Villiers

World Cup semi-finalists:

India, New Zealand, Pakistan. The 4th one is difficult. Maybe England.