IndvZim : A good opportunity awaits Sran in the Zimbabwe tour : Team India, led by Mahendra Singh Dhoni, play a series of three ODIs and two T20Is against the African nation between 11th and 20th June, 2016.
The 16-member squad includes the name of the 23-year old Barinder Sran of Punjab, who hit the headlines when he was picked for the ODI series against Australia played Down Under early this year. By then the youngster had played only in 8 List A matches.
Sran is not very quick but has the skills to be accurate and consistent.
Domestic game performances, primarily forms the yard-stick for including or otherwise of a player into the national squad. However, this was not the norm followed by the selectors for a long time to come. Many remarkable domestic performances went unnoticed that ‘put paid’ to the career of quite a few budding cricketers.
With the change in the stand taken by Patil & Co, it is really encouraging to see domestic talents being, not only recognised, but rewarded too. This act actually goes a long way in instilling confidence in the young minds and eggs them on to put their best foot forward in the domestic circuit.
Making his First Class debut in the game against Odisha on 10th November, 2011, at PCA, Mohali, Chandigarh, opening the bowling attack alongwith Manpreet Gony, Sran picked up 3 wickets in the first innings.
He bettered his performance in the second innings by picking 4 wickets, giving away 27 runs in 13 overs and ended the match with a remarkable analysis of 31-6-93-7, a memorable debut.
Sran’s performance in Ranj Trophy 2015-16 has been phenomenal. Featuring in 8 games he had picked a total of 25 wickets at an average of 31.28 a piece. He had an impressive 3.68 economy with the best bowling figures of 6/61 in an innings and 7/140 in a match.
Featuing in 12 matches (18 innings), Bran has picked up 39 wickets at an average of 31.53, a 3.59 economy rate and a 52.5 strike rate. His best bowling performance has been 6/61 in an innings and 7/93 in a match (his debut match).
Making his List A debut on 22nd February, 2012, against Delhi, Sran has featured in 11 games and has picked up 19 wickets at an average of 32.94 and a 6.27 economy.
Being bought by Rajasthan Royals in 2015, in the IPL circuit, Sran played only one game and went wicketless.
However, Sun Risers Hyderabad bought him in 2016 auction. He featured in 14 matches and got the unique opportunity of bowling alongside Aashish Nehra, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mustafizur Rehman etc.
The left arm seamer who is being billed as the next ‘Zaheer Khan’, picked up 14 wickets from his 14 outings for the franchisee. His best bowling performance has been 3/28 which he claimed against a tough opposition like Mumbai Indians.
He was instrumental in restricting MI to a low score of 142 runs for the loss of 6 wickets. He claimed the wickets of Parthiv Patel (10), Ambatti Rayudu (54) and Jos Butler (11). SRH eventually went on to win the game by 7 wickets.
With his Australian and IPL experiences backing him, Sran might get the opportunity of being the front line bowler in Zimbabwe. He has the golden opportunity of show casing his talent in the international level.
A good and significant performance in Zimbabwe should see Sran don the Indian colours for a very long time to come.