From almost nowhere to India nets: Pacer Ankit Rajpoot's story

Uttar Pradesh pace bowler Ankit Rajpoot who will bowl at the Indian teams nets during the upcoming series against England has been a domestic workhorse quite like Brisbane Test hero Shardul Thakur having played 63 firstclass gamesAnd like Thakur T Natarajan and Navdeep Saini who went from being net bowlers to Test players in Australia following injuries to main bowlers 27yearold Rajpoot is also hoping that his performance in the India nets would be noticedWith no redball cricket around the India nets are something Rajpoot is looking forward to for impressing the Indian team managementMy plan is to impress everyone the captain and coaches It has been a while since A series or any redball cricket has happened So there has been no way to impress the selectors My plan is to impress with my bowling at nets Rajpoot told IANSThere have been no India A team matches On the India bench it is the A players who are called up We have been called up for the nets Avesh Khan a pacer from Madhya Pradesh who has also been called up for nets and I have played matches for India A together I am hoping that the team management realises that we are in touch with cricket he saidHis selection among the five net bowlers has excited Rajpoot and raised his hopeWe know that we could be drafted in as replacements any time Due to Covid19 it is difficult for players to be called from outside as there is quarantine so net bowlers responsibility becomes even more important he saidRajpoot came into the system via an Indian cricket board initiative to bring in players who were out of the regular system The Board of Control for Cricket in India BCCI had started an outofsystem programme over a decade ago when the National Cricket Academy NCA was involved in scouting talented players who had not made the agegroup state teams due to nepotism or oversightThe Indian board sent scouts across the country to find talent even in hinterland We involved the NCA and former Test cricketer Sandeep Patil Even current bowling coach Bharat Arun was tasked to find talent former BCCI secretary Sanjay Jagdale told IANSRajpoot was one of the players picked from the exerciseAmit Asawa a former coach of Ranji champions Rajasthan and who went to Mohali to join the BCCI Specialist Pace Bowlers camp recalls nurturing a young Ankit who had come from outofsystem camp for the pace bowlers camp thereHe was part of the outofsystem camp The bowlers from there used to come for zonal specialist pace bowlers camps for certain periods It was an initiative for players who had not played under16 u19 Rajpoot was one of the rare players to make it really big He straightaway made it to Ranji Trophy He had good pace and a good learning attitude and was quiet Obviously his height sixfootone helped Asawa told IANSInterestingly Shubman Gill too participated in the BCCI specialist pace bowlers when batsmen were called up to face the trainee bowlers Though neither Asawa nor Rajpoot could recall Gill but former academy manager Sushil Kapoor says a very young Gill not even in his teens faced Rajpoot and others at the netsWith the India nets coming up in a week or so Rajpoot would again be bowling at Gill preparing for the first Test against England starting on february 5 in Chennai If Rajpoot can rattle him or others the Indian team coaching staff will surely notice the boy from KanpurThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever