The curfew in the valley still hasn’t been lifted. The streets still seem to have no names. The silence which continues to haunt most of his hometown, has not yet deterred Parvez Rasool, the 23 year old Jammu and Kashmir all-rounder, who wielded his spinning wand on the visiting Australian team’s fortune, on the opening day of the Board President’s XI vs Australia at the M Chinnaswamy stadium in Chennai.
The very place where it all started. The very place which brought the young cricketer unfounded limelight for the wrong reasons. And the very place, where he was made to prove his integrity as a cricketer, a price Rasool had to pay for hailing from the valley.
Looking at the bright side, scalping a 7-45 against the mighty Australians, is a feat which would easily not go unnoticed. A feat, which not only earned him the respect, from his Indian counterpart R. Ashwin, but also got him the opposition team’s top scorer and opening batsman Ed Cowan‘s acknowledgement.
Hailing from the beautiful ‘Town of Chinars’, Bijbehara; a small town situated on the banks of river Jhelum, one of India’s transcendental river’s with a population of 20,000, Parvez Rasool has a story worth making a movie about. Starting out watching his father play the sport at district level, Rasool took up Cricket seriously playing for his school and state’s U-14 and U-16 team followed by his Club cricket representation for Bijbehara Sports Club, a prominent base for South Kashmir cricketers. But his big break came when he shifted base to Srinagar, playing for Srinagar Sports Club which led to his selection in Jammu & Kashmir Senior team in 2008.
But, the coming of age for this young cricketer came in three seasons later when he plundered 594 runs and pillaged 33 wickets in 2012-13 Ranji season, only to be rewarded with a selection to the India A side that played England in November 2012, the first cricketer from the valley to have the honor of playing against an International team. Not only that, he was hand-picked to bowl at the nets to the senior Indian team ahead of India’s third and final game against Pakistan in December 2012 getting to rub shoulders with Dhoni and Virat Kohli, which still happens to be the cricketer’s best moment.
The 11th season of the Border-Gavaskar trophy, which starts on February 22nd in Chennai promises to be a nail-biting affair, like its previous encounters. The visitors on the first day of play must certainly have got a taste and smell of what would be offered on their platter, this Indian summer. With speculations over the team’s selection for the First test, especially around the choice of the out-of form Harbhajan Singh, being awarded a last chance based on his past laurels against the Aussies and that of R. Ashwin, who seemed to have had a rather disastrous outing against the English, Parvez Rasool’s performance certainly seems to have given a wake up call to the two spinners. The selectors are clearly looking to make bold choices. They proved it with selection of Rahane, Dhawan and Vijay over Gambhir, Yuvraj and Raina and wouldn’t hesitate putting either or both of them under the chopping block.
After all, Dhoni has stated his desire of creating a pool of players for 2015 World Cup and with Rasool’s batting average of 38.57 with three hundreds and two fifties in his 7 First class matches along with 33 wickets with Economy rate of 3.04 this Ranji season, should definitely motivate the youngster to knock harder at the selector’s doorstep, if his turn comes up.
In the wake of the recent tragedies at the India-Pakistan border along with everyday accounts of gunfire and bloodshed, the valley and its people are in dire need of reasons to smile. Parvez Rasool has this chance of proving out to be that reason.
