Laxmi Ratan Shukla

Laxmi Ratan Shukla
Member of Legislative Assembly, West Bengal
In office
19 May 2016 - 4 May 2021
Preceded by Ashok Ghosh
Constituency Howrah Uttar
Minister of State for Youth Services and Sports, Government of West Bengal
In office
27 May 2016 – 5 January 2021
Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee
Personal details
Political party All India Trinamool Congress (2016-2021)
Personal information
Born 6 May 1981
Howrah, West Bengal, India
Nickname Bittu
Batting Right-handed
Bowling Right-arm medium-fast
Role All-rounder
International information
National side
ODI debut (cap 119) 22 March 1999 v Sri Lanka
Last ODI 5 September 1999 v West Indies
Domestic team information
Years Team
2008–2013 Kolkata Knight Riders
2014 Delhi Daredevils
2015 Sunrisers Hyderabad
Career statistics
Competition ODI FC LA T20
Matches 3 137 141 81
Runs scored 18 6,217 2,997 994
Batting average 9.0 35.93 30.27 20.70
100s/50s 0/0 9/37 4/13 0/3
Top score 13 250 151 76
Balls bowled 114 12,820 5,223 976
Wickets 1 172 143 47
Bowling average 94.00 34.75 27.62 24.61
5 wickets in innings 0 3 1 0
10 wickets in match 0 0 0 0
Best bowling 1/25 6/86 5/34 3/6
Catches/stumpings 1/– 60/– 53/– 31/–
Source: ESPNcricinfo, 17 November 2016

Laxmi Ratan Shukla (born 6 May 1981), is a former Indian cricketer and politician. He played as a right-handed middle-order batsman and a right-arm medium-pace bowler for the Bengal cricket team. He was also a player in the IPL team Kolkata Knight Riders, Delhi Daredevils, and the Sunrisers Hyderabad. He was a member of the legislative assembly of West Bengal representing the All India Trinamool Congress. He resigned from the ministry on 5 January 2021.

Early life

Shukla was born in Howrah, West Bengal, and did his schooling at Shree Hanumaan Jute Mill Hindi High School and the Don Bosco High & Technical School, Liluah. He caught attention in the Ranji Trophy in the 1997–98 season, and rose to prominence for performing well for the Indian under-19s team in the MTN Youth World Cup in South Africa. He was a part of the Bengal team in the Wills Trophy, in which they got to the semi-final. In 2000 he was picked for the National Cricket Academy.

On 30 December 2015 he announced his retirement from all forms of cricket.

International career

Because of impressive performances in domestic level Shukla got a national call in 1999. He was dropped in favour of Ashish Nehra in the first Test he was selected to play, against Sri Lanka at Colombo in the Asian Test Championship, even after his name appeared in the 11-member squad flashed on the electronic scoreboard at the ground. He made his ODI debut against Sri Lanka on 22 March 1999 in Nagpur. He played his last ODI against West Indies in 1999.

In fact he did not get further chances after that season as a bowler because other young pace bowlers like Zaheer Khan and Ashish Nehra had entered and established their places in the Indian Senior team, upon the impressive performances.

Although Shukla was renowned for his skills as an all rounder, selectors gave the chances for the players like Sanjay Bangar , Kanitkar and eventually Irfan Pathan pushing him down the pecking order.

Vijay Hazare Trophy 2012

He was by far the brightest performer as Bengal (captained by Sourav Ganguly) won its first Vijay Hazare Trophy in 2012. In the group stage match against Jharkhand at Eden Gardens, he scored 151* from 96 balls (16 fours, 8 sixes) to chase down Jharkhand's score of 280/6 in just 38.1 overs. In the next match against Tripura at the Jadavpur University Sports Complex, after being bowled out to only 198 in 49 overs, he took 4/37 (and Sanjib Sanyal took 4/33 from his 8 overs) to bowl out Tripura for just 168 in 37.4 overs. In the quarter-final, he took 2/37 against Madhya Pradesh. He took the wicket of Punjab's highest scorer Mandeep Singh (66) in the semifinal. In the final against Mumbai led by Ajit Agarkar, he took 4/38 (including openers Wasim Jaffer and Ajinkya Rahane) to bowl out Mumbai for only 248, and then chased it down with a 107* off 83 ball-partnership with Anustup Majumdar. He scored 106* from 90 balls, and Anustup Majumdar scored 50* from 45 balls to win the Vijay Hazare Trophy with 23 balls to spare.

Vijay Hazare Trophy 2013

Following his success as an all rounder in the Vijay Hazare Trophy 2012, he was made the captain of Bengal in the Vijay Hazare Trophy 2013. He started the tournament brilliantly, taking 5/34 and thus restricting Odisha to only 175, and winning the match by 11 runs.

Political career

He joined All India Trinamool Congress before 2016 West Bengal Legislative Assembly election and became candidate from Howrah Uttar constituency. He won the seat by defeating Santosh Kumar Pathak of Indian National Congress. He became the minister of State Sports and Youth Services in Mamata Banerjee's second government. On 5 January 2021, he resigned as the Minister of State for Youth Services and Sports.