Ravikumar Samarth (born 22 January 1993) is an Indian cricketer who plays for Karnataka cricket team. He is a right-handed top-order batsman and occasional right-arm off break bowler. He played for Karnataka at various age-group levels such as Under-12, Under-14, Under-16 and Under-19, before making his first-class debut in December 2013.[1]
Samarth did his schooling at the Bishop Cotton Boys' School and B'Com at SBM Jain College which comes under the umbrella of Jain University,[2] Bangalore. While studying at Bishop Cottons, he trained at the Karnataka Institute of Cricket.[3] He also led his school cricket team at the U-14 and U-16 levels, often opening both batting and bowling. He ended leading multiple winning inter-school cricket teams in India. While at school, he was renowned for intensity on the field and his clam demeanor off it. His father Ravikumar works as a clerk in State Bank of India. He has an elder sister Mowna who works at Yahoo.He recently got engaged to Uttara Prakash and posted it on Instagram on 1 January which was his 100th post on Instagram.[1]
According to his father, he was a good sprinter and tennis player.[1]
Samarth played division cricket in the KSCA league. In 2011, he scored over 1200 runs in the national Under-19 tournaments – Vinoo Mankad Trophy and Cooch Behar Trophy.[1]
In 2013, he scored six hundreds from eight innings for KSCA President's XI in the Safi Darashah Trophy, including five hundreds in succession.[3] He made his first-class debut for Karnataka against Mumbai in December 2013 and scored 18 and 75 in that match opening the innings.[4]
In October 2018, he was named in India C's squad for the 2018–19 Deodhar Trophy.[5] In February 2022, he was bought by the Sunrisers Hyderabad in the auction for the 2022 Indian Premier League tournament.[6]