Ravi Singh, Railways’ hard-hitting willow-wielder, is quite new to the rigours of First Class cricket.
Ravi, who works as a ticket collector in Howrah, had to bide his time before finding his place in the Railways team. The Syed Mushtaq Ali and Vijay Hazare tournaments went quite well for me. Some of those matches were broadcast and the selectors at a higher level watched them. The journey, however, has just started for the ticket collector.
The 25-year-old — who has a penchant for striking big in the shorter formats — hasn’t taken long to adjust to the longest discipline, averaging a creditable 58.2 after seven Ranji Trophy innings. “After playing well for the under-23 side, I was called to the National Cricket Academy [now Centre of Excellence]. While his first IPL season was cut short due to an injury after just one game, Ravi remains a vital cog in Railways’ wheels.
I was called for IPL trials, and, after seven or eight years of not playing anything [significant], things suddenly started falling my way,” Ravi said at the MAC Stadium on Saturday, two days ahead of the Ranji game against Tamil Nadu.