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Cricket Players'I took 28 wickets, 3 five-fors and a hat-trick. Yet no one paid attention': Axed India bowler on not getting recognised
During India’s tour of England in 2018, a domestic veteran pacer earned his maiden call-up to the national team. However, after playing only three T20Is and three ODIs for India, he was sidelined as the next generation of fast bowlers arrived on to the scene.
The depth in Indian cricket today is such that most of the fringe players end up representing the national cricket team. With players' workload management being a concern, every time the likes of Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah, Rohit Sharma and other senior players are rested, their replacements are more than capable of forming what looks like a formidable, first-string side. In July last year, with the Test team playing in England, a second limited-overs team toured Sri Lanka and won the ODIs 2-1.
However, this wasn't the case until a few years ago, 2018 to be more precise, when during India's tour of England, a domestic veteran pacer earned his maiden call-up to the national team. However, after playing only three T20Is and three ODIs for India, he was sidelined as the next generation of fast bowlers arrived on to the scene. It was none other than Kohli's teammates from the Under-19 World Cup in 2008, Siddarth Kaul.
Kaul, in a recent interaction with Sports Yaari, spoke about the limelight of the IPL and how limited televised coverage of domestic cricket in India has led to a lot of performances going unnoticed, including his own.
"Domestic cricket should be the criteria because some players who can't play the IPL, they have such outstanding performances in domestic cricket. They aren't included in any tour. I am quarantining right now, else I would have been playing the Ranji Trophy. If you look at my track record last year, I played 5 matches, and I had taken 28 wickets, out of which there were 3 five-wicket hauls and a hat-trick. On a turning track, I had grabbed 2 five-wicket-hauls, one on a green top. Yet, no one paid attention. I didn’t even get selected for India A," Kaul, who got picked up by RCB at the IPL 2022 auction, said.
Having said that, Kaul realised that irrespective of the outcome, the 31-year-old has a job to do and that is to perform well. Be it for Punjab or Sunrisers Hyderabad or now RCB, Kaul is fiercely determined to give his best. Of course, injuries have played a part in keeping him out of reckoning, but the 31-year-old quick is not willing to throw in the towel just yet.
"My job is to perform. If I do that, deep down, I will have the satisfaction that I did well. It is the selector’s job to pick or not pick me. I will be happy knowing that I did my job. Yes, if I don’t do my job well and then criticise then that is foolishness. I will keep performing because it was on the basis on my performance itself that I got into the Indian team," Kaul added.
"I had no godfather and neither a well-wisher who would ask anyone to promote me. No one said 'look at Siddharth Kaul' when I was performing. There was no air about me. I performed and only then did I become a candidate and was picked for the tour of England."
