Siddarth Kaul has been around the Indian domestic scene for nearly a decade and a half. Yet, he has played a mere six international matches for India. Kaul came into the reckoning after some excellent performances in the 2017 and 2018 seasons of the IPL. The Punjab-born pacer had taken 37 wickets in 27 games […]
Siddarth Kaul has been around the Indian domestic scene for nearly a decade and a half. Yet, he has played a mere six international matches for India. Kaul came into the reckoning after some excellent performances in the 2017 and 2018 seasons of the IPL. The Punjab-born pacer had taken 37 wickets in 27 games of the IPL in 2017 and 2018 combined. It was after these two seasons that the Punjab pacer made his India debut in a T20I in Ireland. However, his chances were few and far in between and after a few games, he was discarded.
He hasn’t been in the scheme of things for India for a while now. He faded away even from the IPL arena. Kaul did feature in a handful of matches but he wasn’t a regular feature in the Sunrisers Hyderabad side. The 31-year-old was recently picked by the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in the IPL auction for the 2022 season.
At the moment, Kaul is part of the Punjab Ranji side and he has been performing well. However, he expressed his disappointment around the lack of coverage and limelight that domestic cricket gets in India and how some of the big performances go unnoticed.
“Domestic cricket should be the criteria because some players who can’t play the IPL, they have such outstanding performances in domestic cricket. They aren’t included in any tour. I am quarantining right now, else I would have been playing the Ranji Trophy. If you look at my track record last year, I played 5 matches, and I had taken 28 wickets, out of which there were 3 five-wicket hauls and a hat-trick. On a turning track, I had grabbed 2 five-wicket-hauls, one on a green top. Yet, no one paid attention. I didn’t even get selected for India A,” Siddharth Kaul was quoted saying in an interview with Sports Yaari.
Kaul was superb in the 2019-20 Ranji Trophy. As he mentioned, he played five games and returned with three five-wicket hauls in that season. He picked up 27 wickets at an average of 14.2 and a bowling strike-rate of 29.2. However, his IPL performances weren’t up to the mark and he wasn’t selected. Moreover, Kaul feels that he didn’t have the backing or a godfather behind him and it was only after the consistent performances that got him the India cap.
“I had no godfather and neither a well-wisher who would ask anyone to promote me. No one said ‘look at Siddharth Kaul’ when I was performing. There was no air about me. I performed and only then did I become a candidate and was picked for the tour of England,” Kaul said.
However, Kaul mentioned that selection isn’t in his control and all he can do is to keep performing consistently. At the end of the day, he feels he will have the satisfaction of doing well.
“My job is to perform. If I do that, deep down, I will have the satisfaction that I did well. It is the selector’s job to pick or not pick me. I will be happy knowing that I did my job. Yes, if I don’t do my job well and then criticise then that is foolishness. I will keep performing because it was on the basis on my performance itself that I got into the Indian team,” Kaul added.
