Pankaj Singh's Ranji season has finished, as Rajasthan could not make the knockouts. At least they're in the respectable group B, and not relegated to the mediocre (ask Rishi Dhawan, who can't make the national side despite being the top all-rounder) Group C. In eight games, he's taken 39 wickets, with a strike rate under 50 and three fives. Still not good enough for India?
He's become desperate. He even tried to walk towards Roger Binny, who was watching the game, to find out why he isn't getting an India call-up. In
this interview, he said that he feels he'll miss out because of his age. This is a sad conclusion, for we will now see age, not performance, being a criterion for national selection. It will also encourage a lot of age cheating. Another point he's made is that he's supposed to have missed out because of lack of pace- but points out that nobody except Umesh Yadav has genuine pace.
He's been very, very unlucky, for missing out despite excellent domestic performances. We're seeing caps given to Ishant Sharma, who was never ready for the big stage, and look at what's happened now. We're seeing a tiny, slow, underpowered lad from UP promoted as India's pace hope, but he's got no hope now. We see a one-season wonder from Haryana pushed into a frontline role, and pushed out by formidable batting on a not-so-helpful pitch. We're seeing another domestic veteran from Karnataka picked, only to fail, and we blame the system, but he's at least seven inches shorter. We're seeing a revolving door of Indian pacers, when the door should have been welded shut with Pankaj Singh opening the bowling in Tests and ODIs. And then we wonder why India struggle with their pace bowlers.