Jalaj Saxena believes the ultimate dream is to represent the country

The mainstay of Madhya Pradesh Ranji team, Jalaj Saxena, who played a vital part in helping MP reach the semi-finals of the domestic tournament after 16 years during the 2015-16 season with his all-round performances, is now setting his eyes on greater achievements.

If we trace the career of Saxena, it can be portrayed as the story of near misses. During the times of his purple patches, he wasn’t taken into notice by the selectors. Therefore, he missed out on the India ‘A’ side. But his goal now is to serve the MP side reach greater heights in domestic cricket.

“I won’t say there’s pressure on me from the team. I’ve always tried to put pressure on myself. When I decided to move from Madhya Pradesh, it was a huge decision for me. I was doing well for MP and I thought if I move to a small team, they will bank on me and there will be more challenges for me. There was a challenge to help the team do better. The aim was that if I’m able to help the team do better, then I’ll get noticed as well,” claimed Jalaj Saxena according to Cricbuzz.

The ultimate dream is to play for the country: Jalaj

“The goal is to make them qualify for the knockouts. The last time I played for Madhya Pradesh, I played the semifinal clash against Mumbai. I really, really want to play the knockout matches in Ranji Trophy. The aim [is] to go as far as possible in the tournament. Of course, we can’t be looking too far ahead. It’s a match by match process and the focus is on that,” further added the all-rounder.

At 30 years of age, the chances of Saxena featuring in the Indian team remains bleak. As a matter of fact, the best window of opportunity for the spinner was during 2012 when Harbhajan Singh and Amit Mishra were finding it difficult to cement their place in the side while Ashwin and Jadeja were finding their feet in International cricket.

“The ultimate dream is to play for the country. But for now, I’m trying to enjoy the game. To be honest, I still believe that if I keep putting in the effort, keep performing, good things will happen to me,” concluded Saxena.