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Pankaj Singh

Does Pankaj Singh deserve to play for India currently??


  • Total voters
    18

Anku31

U19 Vice-Captain
Have a look at his stats.
Pankaj Singh | Cricket Players and Officials | ESPN Cricinfo

Aren't these excellent for an Indian pace bowler? He was the top wicket taker last season (51 wickets in 10 FC games) on spin dominated Indian tracks & was a major reason behind Rajasthan's triumph in Ranji Trophy.
He was selected in Indian squad for the 2007-08 Australian tour,but didn't get a chance to play any match.He played his debut & only match match in Zimbabwe tri-series last year.
What a pity.Only a single match till now for such an impressive bowler.
He is quite tall & can make use of bouncy tracks outside the sub-continent.
Abhimanyu Mithun wasn't that impressive last season but i don't know why the selectors still opted for him instead of the top wicket-taker Pankaj Singh.
He is at his best currently & the selectors didn't even pick him in the emerging players tournament squad.They even picked Anirudh Srikkant.This is so disgusting.:@
 

Anku31

U19 Vice-Captain
Can't really judge without footage mate
Yups.True.But the problem is that even the IPL teams have very much lesser interest in him.He played for Rajasthan Royals in IPL 4 but got a single match only.
In IPL 3,he was with the RCB & played a few matches in the last rounds & was quite impressive.You can try searching for his videos on youtube,playing for RCB.
 

Borges

International Regular
Well, can't go entirely by his stats alone - he has played almost all his FC games in the Ranji plate league. Though, to be fair to him, they are a whole lot better than what Sreeshant has achieved, playing in the same league.

Agree that he has got a raw deal - he should have got a chance to prove himself in the emerging players tournament. One can't help feeling that if he had played for Srini's Chennai Super Kings rather than Modi's Rajasthan Royals, his would have been one of the earlier names in the list.
 

Prince EWS

Global Moderator
Yeah, he's definitely got a raw deal. He was in the squad and got dropped without actually playing a game, and has since done everything you could expect of him domestically only to be leapfrogged by several bowlers of very questionable credentials. Seeing Zaheer, Sreesanth, Praveen, Sharma and Munaf ahead of him is fair enough but the reasons behind Mithun, Unadkat and Yadav jumping the queue ahead of him before he even got a chance to play will always be a mystery to me. Perhaps Dhoni really took a set against his attitude or his character when he was in the team setup.
 

Anku31

U19 Vice-Captain
Well, can't go entirely by his stats alone - he has played almost all his FC games in the Ranji plate league. Though, to be fair to him, they are a whole lot better than what Sreeshant has achieved, playing in the same league.

Agree that he has got a raw deal - he should have got a chance to prove himself in the emerging players tournament. One can't help feeling that if he had played for Srini's Chennai Super Kings rather than Modi's Rajasthan Royals, his would have been one of the earlier names in the list.
Yeah.I wonder why a captain like Warne didn't give him more chances?
And yes,so dissapointing act by the selectors in the emerging players tournament.If the season's top bowler can't get a place,then who should!
 

Anku31

U19 Vice-Captain
Yeah, he's definitely got a raw deal. He was in the squad and got dropped without actually playing a game, and has since done everything you could expect of him domestically only to be leapfrogged by several bowlers of very questionable credentials. Seeing Zaheer, Sreesanth, Praveen, Sharma and Munaf ahead of him is fair enough but the reasons behind Mithun, Unadkat and Yadav jumping the queue ahead of him before he even got a chance to play will always be a mystery to me. Perhaps Dhoni really took a set against his attitude or his character when he was in the team setup.
Yeah.Even Unadkat with negligible FC experience got a chance. :@
 

ankitj

Hall of Fame Member
Pankaj Singh doesn't sound like a name that should belong to a very good fast bowler. Should change his name, tbh.
 

kingjulian

U19 12th Man
I dunno....but i think his action literally mirrors that of Ashish Nehra's (Yes i'm aware one is a left and the other is a righty)
 

Arjun

Cricketer Of The Year
He's (at present) just another run-of-the-mill bowler from the domestic scene- already, we've had (and let pass) Gagandeep, Paul and Bose, and maybe Vinay Kumar too. In fact, Vinay Kumar is decently fast, moves the ball well, and is also good without the ball- possibly scores over Pankaj in multiple aspects.

To get ahead, Pankaj needs to work harder on his batting and fielding, given the rather tight competition for places for specialist seam bowlers. He's already one of the better fielders, and can do his bit lower down the order, but more lower-order runs can help a lot.

He also seriously needs to improve his T20 bowling, as he falls way back there, and there is a clear vacancy for seamers in T20.

To sum it up, he's still behind one Vinay Kumar, shares a lot in common with other seasoned seamers who couldn't make the grade, and may fit in as a multi-role utility player, instead of a specialist, and imrpove his record across formats. Excluding him for the likes of Dinda, Tyagi, Mithun, Umesh and Unadkat, though, is baffling.
 

Anku31

U19 Vice-Captain
He's (at present) just another run-of-the-mill bowler from the domestic scene- already, we've had (and let pass) Gagandeep, Paul and Bose, and maybe Vinay Kumar too. In fact, Vinay Kumar is decently fast, moves the ball well, and is also good without the ball- possibly scores over Pankaj in multiple aspects.

To get ahead, Pankaj needs to work harder on his batting and fielding, given the rather tight competition for places for specialist seam bowlers. He's already one of the better fielders, and can do his bit lower down the order, but more lower-order runs can help a lot.

He also seriously needs to improve his T20 bowling, as he falls way back there, and there is a clear vacancy for seamers in T20.

To sum it up, he's still behind one Vinay Kumar, shares a lot in common with other seasoned seamers who couldn't make the grade, and may fit in as a multi-role utility player, instead of a specialist, and imrpove his record across formats. Excluding him for the likes of Dinda, Tyagi, Mithun, Umesh and Unadkat, though, is baffling.
I don't think his batting or fielding should be a concern at the moment.We just need a tall-fast test match bowler.
 

Arjun

Cricketer Of The Year
I don't think his batting or fielding should be a concern at the moment.We just need a tall-fast test match bowler.
Let's just see how it shapes up now. Zaheer seems a perpetual injury worry, and all the bowlers, Zaheer included, are poor on flat decks, and wear out after their fifteenth over. Maybe Pankaj has a shout at that. There's a little too much competition between Zaheer, Ishant, Sreesanth and Praveen, and it will be difficult for Pankaj breaking in there. On the other hand, with India's bowling weakness flaring up due to the lack of a fifth bowler, if he can score runs, adding up to Bhajji and Praveen, he has a very strong case. Pace is a difficult ask from the man, much as it is a screaming requirement, so he needs to get both wickets and runs for his FC team, then for India. He offers just as much with the ball as the top four and if he can get runs on a regular basis, he can play as a third seamer in India or even the fourth seamer abroad. He should easily sneak in ahead of Munaf Patel.

Replacing one of Zaheer, Sreesanth, Ishant or Praveen is out of the question, and even then, he can't help India win matches, so the best he can do is as the fifth bowler.
 

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