I’ll play for India again, says Parthiv

Mumbai: The India hopefuls who were left out of the squad of 30 probables for the ICC Champions Trophy in September will have to come out with all guns blazing when the domestic season gets underway in October. Until then, it’s a long and distraught waiting game.

Parthiv Patel, who was once hailed as India’s most promising young wicketkeeper batsman, now finds himself out of the reckoning with India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Dinesh Karthik keeping him out of the Indian side.

“Actually when I scored prolifically in the Ranji season last year I thought I was back in the reckoning. If you look at my stats in the last year’s domestic season it would be hard to keep me out of the Indian team,” Parthiv tells Cricketnirvana.

He was the captain of the Gujarat side that won the Ranji Trophy Plate League in 2007, besides leading numerous India ‘A’ sides to wins in Nairobi and Harare, cracking three hundreds on the tour. He was rewarded with a call-up to the Test squad for the tour of Sri Lanka. Last domestic season, Parthiv was one of the most prolific batsmen.

“I scored five back-to-back hundreds in the domestic season last year. All I can do now is score bigger hundreds and hope for the best. I have been training hard and am raring to go in October,” he says.

Having been omitted from the Emerging Players Squad for the tour of Australia, Parthiv regrets not performing well enough in this year’s IPL in South Africa. He managed only 175 runs from 9 games, opening the batting on most occasions alongside Matthew Hayden.

“I could have performed better at the IPL this year. It has become such an important stage for youngsters to perform well and get a chance to play for India,” he says.

Naman Ojha and Bengal stumper Wriddhiman Saha have been picked ahead of Parthiv in the Emerging Players Squad for the tour of Australia in July. However, Parthiv fails to read too much into that. “I think I need to focus on the first-class season at the moment.”

With prayer on his lips and hope in his heart, Parthiv is determined to work his way into the national side. “I know deep down that I have what it takes to make the cut. I will play for India again someday and until then I am just going to train hard and score big hundreds,” he says.