Who is Sourabh Kumar, picked in India team for SL Test series?

Sourabh Kumar, the left-arm orthodox spinner has been included in the 18-man squad for the two-match Test series at home against Sri Lanka. Kumar was born on May 1, 1993, in Bhagpat, Uttar Pradesh. His father retired as a junior engineer in Akashwani, the government-owned Radio channel. He was spotted by former India left-arm spinner Bishan Singh Bedi who taught him the necessary skills to be a left-arm tweaker.

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The Bhagpat-born player has picked 196 wickets in 46 games at 24.15 apiece. He is a handy batter with 1572 runs at 29.11 with two hundreds and eight fifties. The all-rounder plays for Uttar Pradesh in the domestic arena and was recently with the India A team in South Africa. He has 16 fifers to his name.

The left arm spinners doesn't try variations and depends on traditional tools like drift and turn. “Mein ye carom-varom ball nahi daalta . I never liked it. I like to loop it and set up batsmen in the air," said Sourabh Kumar, as quoted by The Indian Express. The 28-year-old also drew light on his early days, and revealed how he used to travel from Baghpat to Delhi by train.

“It would take us two-and-a-half hours to reach Delhi. Three times a week, I would come to Sunita Sharma’s academy. My father used to do over-time to make sure he accompanied me to Delhi,” he said.