Will Faiz Fazal get another look?

When you are a cricketer who gets an opportunity to play at the highest level, what would be the advice you can expect from the senior pros, your mentors, and well-wishers? Nothing other than— make the best use of the opportunity, enjoy the game, and play with a positive attitude.

That's exactly what Faiz Fazal did when he got an opportunity to represent the country at the highest level, back in 2016. In a tour to Zimbabwe, when many of the senior players were rested, Fazal got an opportunity to open the batting for India with KL Rahul. The southpaw made the best use of the opportunity and played his part in posting a 10-wicket win, chasing a low score in the third and final ODI at Harare. He scored a half century on debut, hit the winning runs, and remained unbeaten.

The Vidarbha captain scored those runs at brisk pace, hitting seven boundaries and a six off the Zimbabwe captain Graeme Cremer. There was nothing much to choose between Fazal and Rahul in terms of what they did with the bat, but it was bizarre Jasprit Bumrah who returned 4/22 in 10 overs was not man of the match, but Rahul.

Even more bizarre was what awaited Fazal. He was dropped from the side as the senior players returned, and was never selected to play again.

Fazal was already 31 years old, but he was not finished.

After an ordinary 2016-17 Ranji Trophy season, Fazal has once again come back to another late sprout at the age of 32. He is on the top scorers' list this season, having amassed 710 runs in the group stage, at an enviable average of 101.42. Although there are 10 batsmen averaging 100+ this season, only Fazal and Mayank Agarwal have played 8 innings or more.

Unlike the other batsmen on the list, Fazal also has a 100% success rate in converting half centuries to centuries. He scored four scores of 50+, and converted all of them into big hundreds, and even scored his career best of 206 runs against Himachal Pradesh in the last group match to help his side go through to face Kerala in the quarter final.

He is also one of only three batsmen in the season to have hit the ball past the ropes 100 times or more, suggestive of the excellent timing he has always possessed. Fazal also posted the second highest opening wicket stand of the season (264 runs) with his partner Sanjay Ramaswamy.

Is that enough for another call-up to the national side? It would be too much to expect a place in the current Indian Test team as we already have three contenders vying for the two available spots for the South African tour.

But Fazal still has time to show his greed for runs in the knock-out stages of the Ranji Trophy. But considering the next confirmed Test series for India after the South African tour happens only only in August 2018 in England, is Fazal likely to get his chances again or remain as a one-ODI wonder? Time will tell.