Laxmi Ratan Shukla, nicknamed “Bittu”, is a 27-year-old professional cricketer from Howrah, India. Shukla impressed with some impressive Ranji performances when he was only a teen and earned a call to the India Under-19 team that participated in the MTN Youth World Cup in South Africa in 1998. He has also had an international stint where he represented India in One-day Internationals. Recently, Laxmi Ratan Shukla was part of the Kolkata Knight Riders team in the first season of the Indian Premier League.
Shukla made his debut playing for Bengal in the 1997-98 season in the Ranji Trophy against Maharashtra. A talented all-rounder, Shukla drew the attention of selctors who picked him for the India Under-19 squad. The following season, Shukla scored his first century, and a match-winning one at that, against Delhi in the Wills Trophy semi-final. Shukla has four centuries and 35 half centuries to his name at the domestic level, with an average in the low thirties. He has performed equally well with the ball, having picked up 185 wickets with an average of 37 in the First-Class level and 26 in the List A Level. Laxmi Ratan Shukla’s best bowling figures of 6 for 86 came in the First-Class level and is one of his two career five-wicket hauls.
But Shukla’s prolific form at the domestic level appeared to have dried up in the international area. He was picked for the India ODI squad and in his debut match against Sri Lanka in the Pepsi Cup in 1999, he gave 32 runs from four overs. Although he performed comparatively better in his next ODI appearance against the West Indies in the Coca-Cola Singapore Challenge, he failed to hold the selectors’ interest and was soon dropped from the team.
Laxmi Ratan Shukla was picked to be part of the National Cricket Academy, but he was forced to leave after an injury. Shukla, middle-order batsman and medium pace bowler with a knack for getting important breakthroughs, has made the transition to Twenty20 version of the game well. After opting out of the Indian Cricket League, he became a key member of the Kolkata Knight Riders in the first season of the Indian Premier League, an eight-team Twenty20 championship featuring the world’s best players. Shukla holds an impressive record in the T20 level, both with bat and ball. Having played 20 matches, he has managed to maintain a healthy batting average of 28, with a highest score of 76, and he has also picked up 14 wickets at an average of 18.9, with impressive best figures of 3 for 6.
