On December 16, when the IPL (Indian Premier League) cricket auction began, 75-year-old Vallabhbhai Fuletara and his younger son Atul started monitoring the TV while selling paan and mawa at their shop near the bus stand in Maliya, a small town in Junagadh.
Meanwhile, 160 kilometers away in Rajkot, Vallabhbhai’s elder son Bhaveshbhai, his wife Jyotiben, and Atulbhai’s daughters Gracie and Barbie gathered around the TV at their home.
The family watched the auction intently when auctioneer Mallika Sagar announced the name of Bhaveshbhai’s son Krains Fuletra, stating the all-rounder was available to join any IPL team for Rs 30 lakh base price.
Mallika Sagar invited bids for Krains, a left-arm chinaman bowler and right-handed batsman. For several seconds, none of the ten teams placed a bid. Hearts raced at both locations. However, moments later, Sunrisers Hyderabad raised their card, showing readiness to purchase Krains for Rs 30 lakh. With no competing bids, Mallika Sagar struck the hammer and announced Krains was sold to Hyderabad.
A wave of joy swept through the Rajkot home just as Krains, returning from his regular practice, opened the door. Tears welled up in Bhaveshbhai’s eyes. The 53-year-old became emotional imagining his 21-year-old son now playing IPL matches in stadiums packed with thousands of spectators.
When Bhaveshbhai was sent back from Ahmedabad for ‘wasting time’ on cricket
Bhavesh Fuletara’s father Vallabhbhai is a farmer in Maliya who also runs a paan-mawa shop. Krains’ grandfather Vallabhbhai’s younger brother Rameshbhai worked at a textile mill in Ahmedabad. Vallabhbhai sent his son Bhaveshbhai to Ahmedabad for education from seventh standard in 1985-86 to stay with his uncle. However, Bhaveshbhai says the family called him back to Maliya within a year.
Speaking to BBC, Bhaveshbhai explains, “I had a passion for cricket since childhood. So in Ahmedabad, I spent more time playing cricket than studying. Consequently, I was called back to Maliya within a year.”
“When I reached 11th standard, my father started making me sit at the shop. In 1989-90, I failed the 12th science exam, so my father engaged me in farming and the shop. But my cricket passion remained unchanged. Whenever any country was playing and a match came live on TV, our shop TV would always be running.”
In 2004, a son was born to them. The family named him Krains after New Zealand all-rounder Chris Cairns. When the boy turned six, his father and uncle started playing cricket with him in their home compound in Maliya.
How father brought son to IPL
Bhaveshbhai says as Krains grew older, his interest in cricket increased. Father Bhavesh Fuletara explains, “When Krains was studying in fifth standard, we felt we should give him an opportunity to advance in cricket. So we contacted a cricket academy in Junagadh. Father and son would board the train at 5:30 am from Maliya and reach Junagadh at 6:30 am.”
“After four hours of training, we’d catch the return train and reach home by afternoon. This routine continued for five-six months. Afterwards, I felt Krains should take cricket training in Rajkot for his future. So in 2015, Jyoti and I came to Rajkot with the children.”
Bhaveshbhai says after moving to the city as a middle-class person, they began experiencing financial constraints.
He states, “We put Krains in an English medium school. Besides academics, this school also taught cricket to students. But the problem was the school fee was around one lakh rupees annually, which seemed very high for my middle-class family. Moreover, I was new to Rajkot and worried about what work I would do to run the household. So I took help from my cousins living in Rajkot.”
“Despite advancing age, my father took care of the shop again for the children’s future. We were confident Krains would play cricket well. Therefore, despite financial constraints, we educated him in that same school for three years.”
Additionally, besides Krains’ education, Bhaveshbhai living in a joint family had to educate Krains’ elder sister Yesha and Atulbhai’s daughters Gracie and Barbie.
Bhaveshbhai adds the family kept courage and gave all three sisters freedom to advance in studies according to their interests and Krains in cricket.
Why coach converted fast bowler to chinaman bowler
Krains was initially taught cricket by Prashant Desai in Junagadh and later by Amit Shukla and Kamal Chavda in Rajkot. Krains was practicing to become a fast bowler but started spin bowling from 2016 following Amit Shukla’s advice.
Speaking to BBC, Amit Shukla said, “Observing the newly arrived Krains at school, I felt the boy looked like an athlete but his short physical height would hinder him from becoming a successful fast bowler in the future. Therefore, I suggested he do spin bowling.”
“He started doing left-arm orthodox bowling and began mixing googly (a ball that spins and turns in the opposite direction) into it.”
A left-arm bowler who rotates the ball with fingers and takes it from leg stump toward off stump after pitching is called left-arm orthodox bowling.
The coach adds, “But I felt he could bowl googly better than left-arm orthodox bowling. Therefore, I again suggested he use left-arm orthodox as googly and use his googly as stock ball (the direction in which most balls bowled by a spinner turn after pitching is called stock ball).”
“In short, I told him he could become a good left-arm chinaman bowler rather than left-arm orthodox. Krains is a disciplined boy and accepting my advice started practicing chinaman from 2016 itself.”
A left-arm bowler who rotates the ball with wrist instead of fingers and takes the ball from off stump toward leg stump after pitching is called left-arm chinaman bowler.
Amit Shukla says, “After about a decade of practice, he has now become a good left-arm chinaman bowler. Saurashtra Cricket Association, Jaydev Shah, Niranjan Sir (Shah)—all of them saw him, he got a nice platform like SPL (Saurashtra Pro League), Jaydevbhai Unadkat supported him. Many coaches worked hard to advance him this way and now he’s ready to play IPL.”
Notably, Jaydev Unadkat is the current captain of Saurashtra’s Ranji team and also plays as a fast bowler in the Sunrisers Hyderabad team.
No place in Saurashtra team for six years
Shortly after Krains came to Rajkot, he was selected for Saurashtra Cricket Association’s under-14 team. However, after one season, he didn’t get a place in Saurashtra’s under-16 or under-19 teams and consequently played in district-level teams for six consecutive years from 2018-19. Krains and his family began worrying slightly.
Speaking to BBC, Krains said, “I spent six-seven years where I didn’t play anywhere. I only played district-level cricket. Sometimes they’d make me sit out even there. Then thoughts would come to me about what should I do and what shouldn’t I? Why can’t I play good cricket? Why can’t I play state-board level cricket. But for those six-seven years, I maintained the same hard work and routine. That hard work paid off and now appears as an IPL player.”
Finally, Krains got a place in Saurashtra’s under-23 team in the 2024-25 season. In the same season, Krains got a place in Saurashtra’s Ranji team and made his debut in the Ranji Trophy tournament in January 2025.
He also got places in Saurashtra’s one-day and T-20 teams. In the SPL T-20 tournament organized by Saurashtra Cricket Association this year, he was awarded the Emerging Rising Player award for his performance and promise (showing hope of playing well in the future).
Amit Shukla states that although Krains may not have taken heaps of wickets or scored piles of runs, he can prove to be a very useful player for the team due to the novelty in his bowling.
He says, “The novelty in Krains’ bowling action is his specialty. In a way, for right-handed batsmen, Krains ‘ balls count as off-spin. Any traditional right-arm off-spinner can throw such balls. But Krains’ chinaman bowling balls come from a different angle than traditional off-spinner balls and therefore are more difficult for batsmen to play compared to off-spin. Moreover, there aren’t many chinaman bowlers in India currently.”
From net bowler to team bowler
Amit Shukla says Krains’ bowling impressed Jaydev Unadkat as well as Sunrisers Hyderabad scouts (officials who search for new players for the team). Therefore, Hyderabad’s team kept Krains as a net bowler in the 2025 IPL. As a net bowler, Krains stayed with Hyderabad’s team for more than two months and got opportunities to bowl to champion batsmen like Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma, Heinrich Klaasen, etc., as well as bowling during practice with spinners like Australia’s Adam Zampa.
Krains says, “During IPL itself, when Adam Zampa got injured, Hyderabad’s team wanted to play me. But since I hadn’t registered my name in the previous auction, according to IPL rules, Hyderabad’s team couldn’t play me in matches. This year, six IPL teams called me for trials. With Hyderabad taking me, I’m now very excited to play IPL.”
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