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3rd Test: Australia wins Sydney Test (scorecard), South Africa won Test Series 2-1.. T20 & ODI series follows.
Current Cricket Series : South Africa vs Australia, West Indies vs New Zealand. Coming Up : India in NZ 2009.

Set a side, here comes Rajasthan Express : Pankaj Singh

Filed under Player Profile

Pankaj-Singh-Tall-india-bowler.jpg Who are the tallest cricketers ever to play for India? not sure itsonlycricket can answer that question but Abey Kuruvilla & Ventakesh Prasad come stright to mind. Nilesh Kulkarni was a lean n thin n tall spinner once played for India.

Now, the bowler I'm introducing in following - will match shoulders with most of longest cricketers every played cricket at highest level. he goes by the name of Pankaj Singh!

Forget the over eagerness Pankaj brings to India's national cricket team - he also bowls that nagging length batsmen just have to play.. every second delivery. with good pace. coming down from a height of 6 feet 5 inches, right upto your toe!

Left hand batsman or right handed - Pankaj adjusts his line & length easily - and makes things happen.

Why fast bowlers are always compared to trains? probably its their charisma that makes everyone stop n stare until they go past you. Pankaj Singh runs in fast, has an open chested action, comes close to the stumps and bowls good slower deliveries. from well behind the popping crease many a time (a trick Robert Croft of England used to try but not many modern bowlers do). His simple bowling action allows him to repeat same pattern again and again to extract more pace & bounce. Pankaj Singh' rise from under-19 level to India's cricket team has been full of hard work & several camps like the one in Mysore at Infosys Complex where most of India's fast bowlers do extreme training. Pankaj Singh, they say, also has some batting talent to harness and Indian selectors have found a liking in this Sultanpur (UP) born cricketer. Age? well, Pankaj was born on 6th May 1985 so you can calculate how old he's today!

With 26 wickets in 5 Ranji matches in 2007 season, Pankaj got the call for Australian tour when Indian team ran out of pace bowlers with injuries to S Sree Santh, Zaheer Khan, Munaf Patel and etc. Now it's upto him to perform, take wickets & win matches to cement his place in world's most famous cricket team.

Trivia
**Whenever Pankaj makes his debut for India, he'll be second test Rajasthan cricketer to play for the national team. Once, opener Gagan Khoda played 2 ODIs but the first Ranjasthan player in Team India was Partha Sarthi Sharma in 1977.
**Despite string of good performance for his college, he was not selected for Oudh University in Uttar Pradesh. sad & depressed, Pankaj Singh decided to join Army, stayed with Signal Corps in Lucknow for a week (played Vollyball) but moved to Jaipur in Rajasthan to finish his college and finally played in Ranji Trophy - India's first class level.. now that's how you fight for your passion and achieve your dreams!




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