Selection snub galvanizes Prabhsimran Singh; hits 298

Young Prabhsimran Singh raised questions about his omission from the Indian U-19 team, smashing his way to 298 off just 301 balls against Amritsar in the semifinal of the recently-concluded Punjab U-23 Inter-District Cricket Tournament.

The Punjab captain, who was overlooked for the Indian U-19 tour of Sri Lanka took Amritsar bowlers to the cleaners, hitting 29 fours and 13 sixes during his 10-hour long stay at the crease.

“I am still disappointed that I was not selected in the Indian U-19 team for the tour to Sri Lanka.  The dejection is still there, but I let my bat do the talking. That’s the only way to move forward,” said the Patiala born lad to Times of India.

“I was expecting a call,” added the 18-year-old. “since I had amassed 549 runs in the Cooch Behar Trophy for Punjab.”

Prabhsimran eventually fell just two runs short of a glorious triple-century but not before adding a mammoth 239-run stand with Anmolpreet Singh, another prodigious talent from Punjab who also happens to be Prabhsimran’s cousin brother.

Two-years older than his cousin, Anmolpreet is not shy of big hits either and had amassed 753 runs at an average of 125.50 in his debut Ranji Trophy season for Punjab. He played a big role in Prabhsimran’s cricket journey.

“Anmol bhaiya was very passionate towards cricket and I used to follow him to the nets. But once he was selected in the Indian U-19 team for the world cup in 2016, my approach towards the game changed completely. I started to take my game seriously,” said Prabhsimran who was left dejected after being left out of the Indian U-19 team.

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He has however not given up on his dreams and now eyes for the biggest prize – to represent the senior Indian team in the future.

“I have set a target for myself that I will not only play for India, which is obviously the main target, but I will also have a long international career,” he said with a chuckle – the disappointment of missing out a big triple century, still lingering through his mind.

“I missed the triple century by just two runs. It would have been the cherry on the cake. I batted for almost 10 hours, and then went for a glory shot and got out. I was in tremendous anguish after getting out,” he added. “I am not satisfied.”

An Adam Gilchrist fan

His batting may have caught many attention but Prabhsimran also has safe hands behind the stumps and while he idolises Virender Sehwag as a batsman, Austrian legend Adam Gilchrist is the reason behind the Punjab boy taking up the role of a wicket-keeper.

“It used to amaze me seeing the kind of wicket-keeping skills he (Gilchrist) had. After keeping for 50 overs, he used to open for Australia in limited-overs cricket. It was because of Adam Gilchrist that I fell in love with wicket-keeping,” said Prabhsimran, who took to keeping wickets after watching the Australian on TV.

The dashing batsman is now attending a wicket-keeping camp at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru under Kiran More and as excited as he is to learn under the former indian wicket-keeper, he also considers himself fortunate to have been selected among the five U-19 wicket-keepeers to train in the camp from across the country.