Indian Cricket cap is the ultimate prize for any cricket aspirant who wants to take up the sport. To play for the country which houses over a billion people in its population is a sign that you have the required talent and will to succeed and make it to the top, but along with it comes the struggles and sacrifices and everything that comes in realizing one’s dream of playing for the nation and India has witnessed many such stories over the years which has captivated the fans who have beaten the odds or toiled hard to get the elusive India cap.
The story as it happened –
Mandeep Singh who is known to be an attacking batsman and a great fielder is one such name who was tagged with a great potential tag when he was part of the ICC under 19 world cup team in 2010 along with KL Rahul and Jaydev Unadkat. The 29 year old from Punjab was asked by a fan “@mandeeps12 tum India ke liye kab kheloge Bhai.ya dobara janam lena parega? (When can we see you play for India or do you need to be reborn to achieve this dream)
Mandeep Singh’s classy reply to the fan –
Mandeep Singh had attached his stats from the 2019/20 Ranji Trophy season where he had scored 564 runs from 8 innings with an average of 141 and was seen batting in a game for Punjab where the team was struggling at 49 for 5. Mandeep Singh replied to the fan “Itne se nahi hoga bade bhaiya” which meant these numbers aren’t enough brother.
Mandeep Singh has played 3 T20’s for India during the 2016 tour of Zimbabwe scoring 87 runs with a best of 52 not out at a strike rate of 119. He has played 78 first class games for Punjab scoring 5316 runs with 13 centuries and 28 half centuries at an average of 47. Mandeep has played 108 List A games scoring 3254 runs with 3 centuries and 24 half centuries while in the T20 format he has played 179 games scoring 3566 runs with a best of 99 not out and a career strike rate of 128. In the IPL Mandeep has played 104 games with over 1600 runs with a strike rate of 124 the last of his IPL appearances came against Chennai in 2020 when he scored 14 off 15 balls in a game which saw Chennai win by 9 wickets.