Hope I'll get another opportunity to represent India, states Rishi Dhawan
Himachal Pradesh all-rounder Rishi Dhawan, who starred in his side's draw against Karnataka in Mysore last week, revealed that he is hoping to get a call-up for India some time in the future. Dhawan has represented India in four limited-over games, with the last appearance coming way back in 2016.
Back in 2016, Rishi Dhawan was making serious inroads in both Domestic Cricket and the Indian Premier League, having established himself as a handy merchant with both bat and ball. The all-rounder's ability to take wickets with the new ball, bowl in the middle overs and subsequently finish off games with the bat caught the eye of the selectors, who handed the then 26-year-old a maiden call-up to the Indian side in their limited-overs tour of Australia in early 2016.
However, things did not go as planned for Dhawan, who could only manage to pick a solitary wicket from three matches, whilst scoring a total of just 12 runs. Post his disastrous Australia tour, Dhawan went on to represent India in just a single T20I against Zimbabwe in June in the same year, after which he found himself completely out of the picture for national selection. Dhawan, who now plies his trade in the domestic circuit with the Himachal Pradesh side, revealed that he is now better equipped to deal with the rigors of international cricket and hopes to get a national call-up some time in the future.
“I feel more ready now. I played a couple of games and was sent back. It takes time to get a hang of that level. I have worked on my bowling and have also improved my batting. I have done well in every situation. I hope that I will get an opportunity again," Dhawan told Sportstar.
“I think I should have played more India-A tours, Duleep Trophy and Deodhar Trophy matches. Once you have played at the international level, you should get opportunities to perform at the domestic level. After the Zimbabwe game, I haven’t played any high level cricket,” he added.
Having averaged 37 with the bat and 18 with the ball, the now 29-year-old has been in phenomenal form in the Ranji Trophy this season. Despite Himachal Pradesh not being of one of the 'big teams' in the country, Dhawan feels that with time, his performances will start turning heads and is also hopeful of it warranting a national call-up. Having narrowly missed out on qualification for the knock-out stages last season, the all-rounder is confident of his young side going one step further and booking a place in the quarter-final this time around.
“Nowadays I don’t think that is the case (Himachal Pradesh not being a big team). Every match counts. If you perform well, it will be noticed. I am confident that I am doing well and I hope to get picked.
“As a team we have been doing well of late,” he added. “Last season we nearly qualified [for quarterfinals] but lost out to Kerala in the last match. We have a lot of very good youngsters. We are now on a level terms with other teams and we hope to qualify this year."
