India player Abhimanyu Easwaran was not happy after failing to be in India’s Test squad for the upcoming three-match Test series against South Africa which is all set to begin on December 26. But he will try to use this as motivation to do well in the upcoming Ranji Trophy and be back in the team again as well.
However, he was with the team for both the home and away series against England this year, and later Easwaran did well in the recent series against South Africa A also. And, the board picked up Gujarat captain Priyank Panchal as a replacement for the injured Rohit Sharma, who has been named as the vice-captain of the Test team as well.
“Expectation is always there. Whenever a team comes up, you always look for your name. But then, if it’s not there, you will always want to work harder and score more runs. Selection is not in your hands, as a player. That’s something which the selectors or the management has to think about,” Abhimanyu Easwaran said in an exclusive interview to Sportskeeda.
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“My job is to just keep improving and giving my best in every single game and trying to win it for my team. My focus is on that only, and I think it makes things simpler if you just focus on your job. So that’s what I have been trying to do for a while now, and I think that’s been helping me,” he further added.
However, missing out on the South Africa tour didn’t go down well with him, when he was the only Indian to score a century on the recently concluded ‘A’ tour there as well.
“Getting a hundred is always special, and when you do it for the country at any level, it becomes more special. So yeah, it was a good feeling to get a hundred and doing it in South Africa was even more special. I don’t really think too much about what people say. For me, it was a good moment – I got a hundred, I celebrated it. Then I just wanted to switch on again and focus on the next ball, that’s what the feeling was exactly,” Abhimanyu Easwaran further explained.
On the other hand, the India ‘A’ squad has a few players who have already played for the senior team but they failed to seal their places in the team as well. And, Abhimanyu Easwaran made it clear that selection isn’t in his hand as well.
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“Yeah we do talk about improving our games, it’s not about how we can get selected. Because again, that’s not controllable. You can just perform to your best and then hope that you get selected, you can’t think, ‘Yaar, main itna run banaunga toh selection hoga’. You can just try and get better and score as many runs as you can. If you get a hundred or double hundred, or if you get a chance, maybe a triple hundred, that would make your chance better to be selected,” Abhimanyu Easwaran signed off.
