What more should Pankaj Singh do?

In the last four seasons, you have taken over 150 wickets in first class cricket. With an abundance of blood, sweat and toil, you have spearheaded the pace attack, and helped an unfancied team to win the Ranji trophy twice. Yet the national selectors don’t find you good enough to be selected for the Test squad. This is the tragic story of Rajasthan’s premier fast bowler, Pankaj Singh. Years of hard-work yet, he hasn’t reaped the rewards for it.

Even Pankaj’s Singh’s biggest critic would have to agree that his consistency in Ranji trophy is remarkable and praiseworthy. Tracks in India can be a fast bowler’s graveyard. Those lifeless tracks, though, haven’t deterred Pankaj Singh one bit, as he has taken now 255 wickets at just 26.11.

Recently, I even got a rare opportunity to watch the Sultanpur Express bowl in a Ranji trophy game played between Bengal and Rajasthan. In that game, he lit up the Eden Gardens stadium by bowling incisive spells, and was duly rewarded for his efforts with nine wickets. The zest and the verve with which Pankaj bowled at Eden Gardens, made you wonder, why isn’t he playing for India.

Pankaj Singh’s first innings spell at Eden Gardens encapsulated what his bowling is all about. In his first spell, he was consistently bowling at around 85mph with good control. The icing on the cake for a cricket aficionado was that, even late in the day, he maintained decent speeds. He extracted bounce and seam movement to make life even more difficult for batsmen. If we think about present day Indian quicks, Pankaj Singh is an anomaly, as unlike others, he is as fit as a fiddle.

If you still don’t believe Pankaj Singh should play for India then, compare his stats to other quicks, who have played for the national team in recent times. The likes of Sreesanth, Dinda and Ishant Sharma have worse first class averages, when compared to Pankaj Singh. Those who advocate for the selection of Sharma and Sreesanth, use the word ”talented” to defend them.

So, should we believe when Pankaj Singh bowls decent lengths with good control, extracts bounce and seam movement, he isn’t talented? But Sreesanth with his occasional burst of brilliance is talented? Even if we consider the fact that Sreesanth generally bowls with an upright seam, he can’t be excused for his lack of control. In England in 2011, Sreesanth didn’t seem to have a clue about bowling to left-handers. He continued to gift them with half-volleys on leg-stump, and the English batsmen made merry by promptly dispatching those half volleys to the boundary. Just having raw talent doesn’t mean much. But to be a successful cricketer, you need to harness that talent.

What makes it worse for Pankaj Singh is, while other quicks are given innumerable opportunities to showcase their talents, he doesn’t even get a chance to play for India A. I see that he wasn’t selected to play for Rest of India against Mumbai in the Irani trophy.

Yes, Pankaj Singh was once picked to tour Down Under in 07/08 with the Indian team, but only warmed the benches. He was also picked for a tour to Zimbabwe in 2010. Poor Pankaj Singh, as he just played one game during that tour.

A frustrated Pankaj Singh was brave enough to ask a national selector about what more should he do to get selected, ”I had asked one of them about three years ago. I was told I was lacking in pace, so I worked on it and now, I can consistently bowl 135+ [kph] for hours,” he said. “Then they said I don’t perform against the big teams. I can tell you that I have played six games against Mumbai and barring two of them [including last week's Group A tie], I have picked rich hauls in the other four games.”

When a selector says Pankaj Singh isn’t quick enough, you wonder, whether selection is done on the basis of how they perform in the IPL. If that is the case then, it is a worrying sign for Indian cricket. In t/20s, it is easier to bowl quick, as it is about bowling short spells. The real test for a fast bowler is in the longer format of the game. It isn’t a child’s play to bowl 20 overs in a day.

If we trace Pankaj Singh’s career, he had to work very hard to come through the ranks. Despite a string of good performances, he was not selected to play for Oudh University in Uttar Pradash. But instead of drowning in depression, he took that setback on his chin, and worked his way up the ladder to represent Rajasthan.

Now, at the age of 27, this unassuming cricketer has no other choice, but continue to take wickets in first class cricket. Hopefully, one fine day, the selectors will wake up from their deep slumber and reward him with a place in the test squad. The other alternative for him is to run through a concrete wall built by Indian cements and impress N Srinivasan. Who knows, it may just work for Pankaj Singh!