Priyank Panchal admits to enjoying his cricket after brilliant century

Ahmedabad born batsman Priyank Panchal opened his Duleep Trophy campaign in outstanding fashion. The 27-year-old slammed a magnificent ton featuring for the India Reds as they took on the India Green. Panchal has been knocking on the door of the national selectors since long and the batsman might just have secured his spot in the India ‘A’ squad for the series against New Zealand.

Panchal who missed India ‘A’s tour of South Africa due to Dengue mentioned that he wanted to stay in the middle for a significant amount of time. He expressed his hunger for runs and said that he got some rest before the Duleep Trophy opener.

What Panchal had to say:

“I wanted to stay long in the middle as I was hungry for runs. “I missed the tour of South Africa for India A due to dengue and was taking rest before coming here to play the domestic season opener.” he said.

“I could have scored more runs as after some initial hiccups the red clay pitch was perfect for my batting. I don’t know where my performance would take me to, but for now, I am trying to score as much as runs I could do for my team.” Panchal added.

“I am feeling fresh now and enjoying my cricket. Undoubtedly, the wicket is slow and you have to play with a straight bat as the rivals are bowling in right areas and that too according to their field.” claimed Panchal.

Panchal mentioned that first experience with the Pink ball was a decent one. He went on to say that he opted to be careful in the beginning and later decided to play late to deal with the reverse swing.

“It’s my first game with pink ball and that too under the lights so I was quite cautious in the beginning. Later on, I opted to play a bit late as the pink ball does reverse swing quite often and it’s difficult for a batsman to be pre-committed for a shot.” he said.

“We needed to have one more partnership today but still I am sure for the team to score 350 plus runs. Anything beyond 350 would be a challenging total for the rivals as we have genuine spinners who may dictate terms quite easily on this turf.” he concluded.