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Tyagi underscores his commitment
Selectors short-listed 65 aspirants for the final round of trials on Thursday. As many as 352 had appeared on the first day, reports Sharad Deep.
ONLY LAST night, ace seamer Sudeep Tyagi came to know about his selection for the India 'A' team that will play against New Zealand 'A'.
But, he still didn't miss the Ranji Trophy trials in Kanpur on Wednesday morning.
He let the Gopal Sharma-led five-member selection committee know about his selection first and then went on to bowl for at least 45-minutes at Kamla Club Ground nets on the penultimate day of the three-day trials.
"He (Sudeep) was bowling superbly," said a selector who refused to be named.
"It was great the boy didn't miss the trials even after getting a call for national duty," he added.
Young Tyagi made a dream debut in the domestic circuit last season. He finished as the highest wicket-taker of the year with 41 wickets. "It was a great performance. Earlier, the boy had just two wickets in the under-22 matches in 2005-06. He proved a worthy replacement for left-arm seamer Shalabh Srivastava, who joined the Indian Cricket
League last season."
Besides Tyagi, almost all the regular faces, including former skipper Jyoti Yadav, too appeared in the trials on Wednesday. As expected the top guns - skipper Mohd Kaif, Suresh Raina, Rudra Pratap Singh, Piyush Chawla and Praveen Kumar - were busy doing national duty.
"They (all the five) need not come for the trials as they are an obvious choice for the side," said another selector, who also praised Jyoti Yadav for his batting in the nets. "He (Jyoti) was as good as he used to be. He may get a chance this season too, if we really need a good middle order batsman and if Raina is not available for the domestic matches."
"You can't discount Jyoti's importance as a batsman. I think he was given enough punishment last season for some of his wrongdoings," he added.
Meanwhile, the selectors short-listed 65 aspirants for the final round of trials on Thursday. As many as 352 had appeared on the first day.
The number was reduced to 100 on Wednesday.
"So far, we haven't seen any extraordinary talent at the trials. Some of the under-22 and junior cricketers are very talented. But while selecting the senior side, we have to take care of our junior teams too," said a selector, adding, "If required, we can consider some of them for Ranji matches, but it's too early to say now."
Known faces like Tanmay Srivastava, Anshul Kapoor, Tahir Abbas, Praveen Gupta and Ratnesh Mishra were also in action at the trials on Wednesday.
