Srinagar: India might have whitewashed Zimbabwe 5-0 but not playing Parvez Rasool has earned the team management no friends in Kashmir. Parvez hogged the headlines early July after making it to the fifteen member squad for the Zimbabwe tour and there were expectations that he would get to play at least one or two games, especially after India took the 3-0 series wining lead. But that was not to be. Of the fifteen players, Parvez is the only one not to get a single game on the tour.
Cricket lovers in Kashmir gave vent to their unpleasant feelings on networking sites after the playing eleven was announced on Saturday for the last tour game that India won by seven wickets. As for the family, they have taken it in their stride saying they are hopeful Parvez would don the Team India cap one day.
We are hopeful that he will make it to the playing XI in the upcoming tours, said ghulam Rasool, Parvezs father who has played club cricket.
It is a decision of THE team management, said Rasool, and we respect it. He said Parvez was hopeful and waiting for a chance to prove himself.
Parvez, who shot to fame with a brilliant allround performance in the Ranji Trophy last season by scoring 594 runs and grabbing 33 wickets, was not played in any of the matches during the Zimbabwe tour.
Expressing his disappointment over Parvezs exclusion from the playing XI, Aaquib Mushtaq, a young cricket follower said he was expecting Parvez would get a chance to debut on the tour.
Unfortunately, he didnt get a chance. Everyone here was optimistic that he would bring laurels to the state, said Aquib.
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah also expressed his disappointment on twitter that the cricketer was not given a game or two, after India took an unassailable 3-0 lead. Did you really have to take him all the way to Zimbabwe to demoralise him? Wouldn’t it have been cheaper to just do it at home?
The Union Home Minister of State for Human Resource Development, Shashi Tharoor, also expressed his displeasure. Tharoor tweeted: Greatly disappointed that Parvez Rasool is not playing today. Bizarre selection! Could easily have rested Jadeja & Raina for Rasool & Rahane.”
Former test cricketer and JKCA Coach, Bishen Singh Bedi, who mentored Parvez over the last few years refused to comment.
Parvezs selection to the international squad was fast-tracked after he took seven wickets in an innings of a tour game against visiting Australians early this year.
Though it didnt win him a test call, the performance brought him into reckoning and he became the first cricketer from the Valley to bag an IPL contract when he was signed by Pune Warriors India for the sixth edition of the lucrative T20 league.
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