Former Hong Kong Captain Anshuman Rath Wishes To Play Test Cricket For India

Former Hong Kong cricket captain Anshuman Rath has revealed his unique intent moving forward in his international future. Anshuman Rath expressed that he wants to don the whites for India in the near future. His immediate goal is to break into the Vidharaba domestic team for which he signed last year as a local player.

Also Read: PCA Announce Contracts For The 2020-21 Domestic Season

So far, Anshuman Rath has featured in 18 ODIs and 20 T20Is for Hong Kong. Rath captained the national side against India during their 2018 Asia Cup clash, a game in which they fought valiantly. The 22-year old opened the batting for Hong Kong and stitched an opening partnership of 174 with Nizakat Khan while chasing 286. A flurry of wickets following the first one meant that Hong Kong fell short by 26 runs.

Anshuman Rath has declared that he is not going to leave anything to chance, unlike those cricketers who have plenty of excuses. Even though the southpaw understands it is going to be a long shot, he has set a short-term goal, which is to break into the Vidharba side. From there, Anshuman plans to get closer and closer to India’s Test team.

“I am not going to leave anything to chance. I see a lot of talented cricketers have the world of excuses. I know it is going to be a Herculean task. For now, my goal is just to get into that Vidarbha side and cement that position and then get closer and closer to the ultimate dream of playing Test cricket,” the youngster told Vedant Sharma SportsTiger Youtube channel.

“What would have made it a perfect day is that we would have got 26 more runs” : Anshuman Rath

Rath recalled the 2018 Asia Cup encounter against India and said that it would have been a perfect day had they notched up those 26 runs. He underlined that it was a tactical decision to promote Nizakat Khan to open and signal their fearless intent. Anshuman Rath claimed that his opening partner got them off to a blazing start while he kept holding the fort from the other end. Nizakat scored 92 off 115 balls while Anshuman made 73 off 97 deliveries.

“Everything was just clicking. What would have made it a perfect day is that we would have got 26 more runs. We made a tactical decision to promote Nizakat to open with me. We told him to play out there like its a T20 match, just literally play fearless cricket. We had got nothing to lose. The momentum was on our side and I told him ‘just play fearless cricket. He got us to off a flier. He kept the tempo going and I was able to construct the chase from the other end,” he added.

Also Read: Irfan Pathan Reckons Rohit Sharma Can Have The Same Impact As Virender Sehwag In Test Cricket