"Wanted to play Test format for India"- Faiz Fazal opens up on disappointment about India snub

Former Indian cricketer Faiz Fazal was an absolute stalwart in domestic cricket. He scored a staggering 9,184 runs in 134 first-class games at an average of 41. However, he never played Test cricket for India and featured in just a solitary ODI against Zimbabwe way back in 2016.

However, Fazal claimed that he understood how tough it was to break into the Indian team despite the disappointment of not winning even a single Test cap.

Speaking to CricketNext, here's what Faiz Fazal had to say about the Indian Test call-up that never arrived:

"As a professional you feel bad and disappointed. I wanted to play Test format for India. Unfortunately, I couldn’t make it to the Test side. The competition is really, very strong in India. There’s no jealousy or grudges but ofcourse, as a professional, it’s disappointing. The other part to this is that competition should be there."

Faiz Fazal bluntly claimed that he used to sulk at being overlooked. However, his love for the game was enough motivation for him to keep going and chase the India dream.

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Faiz Fazal on leadership qualities

Faiz Fazal shared the dressing room with great captains like MS Dhoni (India) and Shane Watson (Rajasthan Royals). He believes leadership traits are in-born and feels he got a lot to learn from the brilliant tacticians of the game that he spent time with both on and off the field.

On this, he stated:

"We had Shane Warne in Rajasthan Royals. He was a brilliant skipper. I think Australia says we missed the best captain. Apart from him, MS was also there. I just feel every captain under whom I have played under had some or the other quality that I picked. I wasn’t a perfect captain but I always tried to implement the things that I have learnt."

Fazal was a successful leader with his biggest achievement arguably being helping Vidarbha win their maiden Ranji Trophy title in the 2017/18 season. He also played three seasons for Rajasthan but ended his illustrious career being a bonafide legend of Vidarbha cricket.