da prosport bet： Sarandeep Singh has done nothing wrong after making his Test debutagainst Zimbabwe at Nagpur in November 2000 where he claimed sixwickets
Santhosh S24-Nov-2001Sarandeep Singh has done nothing wrong after making his Test debutagainst Zimbabwe at Nagpur in November 2000 where he claimed sixwickets. The young Punjabi off-spinner though finds himself out of thenational team. Sarandeep Singh should have been the one to playagainst Australia but sadly due to a quirk of fate, Harbhajan Singhgot the nod ahead of him. What followed in that series is a part ofcricket folklore.Having said that, no credit should be taken away from Sarandeep Singh,for he has done what he is supposed to do – claim wickets. Nationalselector Madan Lal is more than impressed with this young bowler’sperformance in the domestic circuit, “Sarandeep Singh should play forIndia very soon, the boy has taken a lot of wickets, what else can weask him to do?”Earlier this year, Sarandeep bowled exceedingly well in the IraniTrophy against Baroda claiming eight wickets. He has followed that upby picking wickets in good numbers, playing for his adopted state NewDelhi during the current Ranji season; the shift from Punjabnecessitated as he is employed by ONGC which is based in the Indiancapital. The young spinner is also excited by the opportunity thisgives him to be with the legendary Bishen Singh Bedi.Sarandeep Singh, who flew in very late on the eve of the three-daymatch against England in Hyderabad, picked up five English wicketsgiving away 98 runs on day one, a feat witnessed by the five nationalselectors. In an exclusive interview to , Sarandeepsaid, “I was very nervous flying in to Hyderabad, I did not have anychance to prepare for such an important match in my career. I knewthat nothing other than performance would do me any good in my effortsto make a comeback into the Indian team.”I kept thinking about it, planning how to bowl against the Englishbatsmen. I decided it would be a good thing to bowl a good line, as Ihad not seen the wicket. When I saw the pitch on the match-day, itlooked a good pitch for batting. There was a little bit of turn andbounce early on as the pitch was fresh.”Soon it became very easy for the batsmen, the pitch was definitelyslowing down and I had to think of new strategies. I tried changing myline a bit and also varying my pace. You can get easy wickets indomestic cricket by bowling on one side of the wicket but againstinternational batsmen, you have to do that extra bit. They don’t giveaway their wickets that cheaply.”Sarandeep was thankful to Board President’s XI skipper Jacob Martin,who bowled him in short spells. Martin also made sure that his bowlersbowled from both ends, and by the end of the first day Sarandeep hadclaimed five wickets while Murali Kartik had three.When asked about how he felt being left in the wilderness after a gooddebut, Sarandeep replied in a voice filled with sadness, “Reallynothing is in my hands. I had hoped to play against Australia, butthen it is all for the selectors, all I can do is keep giving goodperformance and hope for the best.””I always send my best wishes to Harbhajan Singh for he isrepresenting the country. I believe in working hard and performingwell. I am working on my batting too; if I could contribute 30-40 runsin the lower order, it will brighten my chances of winning an Indiacap. It is going to be a challenge to bowl with Harbhajan Singh andAnil Kumble, they are such great bowlers. I will give more than my 100percent for India,” he added.About his stint at the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore, he said,”I had never seen Erapalli Prasanna before I went to the NCA. It was agreat experience for me to spend time with him. He taught me about theimportance of bowling on different types of wickets, to be mentallyprepared always as most of the game is actually played in the mind. Ilearned new tricks and understood the importance of having a strategybowling to different batsmen. I was taught to never bowl what thebatsman thinks that you are going to bowl. Prasanna is my idol.”Sarandeep Singh might soon be playing for India, if one goes by whatMadan Lal says. Given the fact that the tracks in India will favourspinners and the distinct inability of most of the English batsmen totackle spin, the coming days should finally bring good news for thishumble lad from Amritsar.