Parvez Rasool - Journey to Indian cricket team amid gunfires

Parvez Rasool, the 23 year old all-rounder, became the first cricketer from Kashmir to be picked for the India-A team. The young man was so delighted that he forgot the slight negatives of the past few year.

Rasool was kept in official custody by Bangalore police for questioning in 2009 in connection with suspected presence of explosives at the Chinnaswamy Stadium. A few days later, he was given a clean chit as he was wrongly accused.

On Sunday, Rasool appeared in a practice match against England XI.

Rasool has scored 594 runs from seven matches with an average of 54 and has taken 33 wickets in the Ranji Trophy this season.

Rasool said that, “It was a not a great thing to happen, whether by any mistake or an error in the machine or whatever…I didn’t spend too much time thinking over it.”

“Last few days have been out of this world. It is an amazing feeling. My phone has been bombarded with congratulatory messages and people want to know about me. All this seems so surreal”, the all-rounder added.

“We don’t have enough facilities. There are only two turf wickets in valley, one at the Sher-e-Kashmir Stadium and theother one at Kashmir University in Srinagar. Apart from this, we have one turf wicket in Jammu. I hope JKCA (Jammu and Kashmir Cricket Association) will look into this matter.”

India-A coach Lalchand Rajput said about the youngster that, “I have seen him before. He has the talent but the thing is that you need to transform that talent into performance against a quality side.”