Siddharth Kaul was Virat Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja’s teammate when India won the U19 World Cup in 2008. While Kohli and Jadeja managed to become permanent members of the senior India team, Kaul was deprived of opportunities, playing only three T20Is and three ODIs for India.
He made his international debut in 2018 and played his last game for India in 2019. However, Kaul will be soon seen in action for the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in the IPL 2022.
Recently, Kaul highlighted how the limelight of the IPL and how limited televised coverage of domestic cricket in India has led to a lot of performances going unnoticed, including that of his own.
In a recent interaction with Sports Yaari, Kaul said: “Domestic cricket should be the criteria because some players who can't play the IPL, they have such outstanding performances in domestic cricket. They aren't included in any tour. I am quarantining right now, else I would have been playing the Ranji Trophy.
If you look at my track record last year, I played 5 matches, and I had taken 28 wickets, out of which there were 3 five-wicket hauls and a hat-trick. On a turning track, I had grabbed 2 five-wicket-hauls, one on a green top. Yet, no one paid attention. I didn’t even get selected for India A.”
He further explained, “My job is to perform. If I do that, deep down, I will have the satisfaction that I did well. It is the selector’s job to pick or not pick me. I will be happy knowing that I did my job. Yes, if I don’t do my job well and then criticize then that is foolishness. I will keep performing because it was on the basis of my performance itself that I got into the Indian team.”
Kaul concluded, “I had no godfather and neither a well-wisher who would ask anyone to promote me. No one said 'look at Siddharth Kaul' when I was performing. There was no air about me. I performed and only then did I become a candidate and was picked for the tour of England.”
