Post News Network
Bhubaneswar, March 7: Call it promotion or demotion, former Orissa first class cricketer Rashmi Ranjan Parida is excited at the prospect of working with the under-19 cricketers of the state after a stint as the batting coach of the senior team last season. Rashmi is keen to pass on his experience to the youngsters so that they may benefit from his knowledge.
“I don’t know what you would call it, ‘promotion or demotion’,” said Rashmi, the only player from Orissa to have won a Ranji Trophy winner’s medal when he represented Rajasthan as a professional.
“I feel it is a good break for me as I will be able to spend quality time with the kids and mould them accordingly. I feel that if given sufficient time, good first class cricketers can be produced from the bunch of youngsters. Provided, they work seriously.”
Rashmi has already chalked plans regarding how to go about the job. “Well I will be watching the inter-district under-19 games so that I can build up a pool of 25-30 cricketers,” he informed. “Then the real work will start. Modern cricket is all about the head… mental ability more than anything else matters. So that is one aspect, I am really going to focus on,” he added.
Naturally with cricket being discussed, the topic turned to the upcoming T20 Worlds and Rashmi stated categorically that India start huge favourites followed by South Africa. “This Indian side has good balance,” the batsman pointed out. “The return of Yuvraj (Singh) and the two new finds, Jasprit Bumrah and Hardik Pandya have really set the team up,” he added.
Talking about Bumrah, the batsman stated that he had played against the fast bowler. “He is difficult to read because of his action. He got me out also in the game that I played against him. When someone bowls at 140-plus with a peculiar action, it is indeed difficult to read,” he added.