Rituraj Singh: The bowler who turned it around for Rajasthan

It was somewhere in July 2009 that Rajasthan Cricket Association was persuaded by Anil Sinha, the then chairman of the junior selection committee, to take a tour to Australia. Vinit Saxena was made the captain.

The senior and junior committees sat together to form a team and the shortlisted team was to play a trial match against those left out. Rituraj Singh had not made it to the main team.

In the trial match, this boy, with the bustling run-up and a skinny frame, took six wickets and made everyone sit up and take notice. He made it to Australia and was instantly marked as one for the future. The purists noticed many faults in him. They said that his front foot landing was not proper. That his weight of 58 kg on a 5’ 10” frame was not really made for fast bowling but nobody could do a thing.

The boy was taking wickets by the bagful. His coach and mentor, Anil Sinha, however, always insisted that he should be allowed to stick to his style.

He played for the U-19 that year but the association was in turmoil and nobody cared for cricket. After a modicum of sanity was restored, he was sent to a trial organised by MRF Pace Academy. He was selected and his story took root.

In the 2010-11season, he and Deepak Chahar were competing for the third seamer’s spot in the Rajasthan Ranji team. Chahar got the nod first and after his dream debut in which he took 8-10 and skittled out Hyderabad for 21, Chahar became the toast of the country. Rituraj was left out but he played his heart out for the U-22 team.

He was playing for the MRF regularly and Chennai became his second home. Senthilnathan smoothened his raw edges without tampering too much with his bowling style. In the MRF exchange programme, he was selected for Australia A team for the Emerging Players tournament at Brisbane where he did not put the house on fire but did reasonably well.

When the preparations began for the season this year, we could notice that Chahar was quite rusty and he was not doing the right things. It was in evidence in the Irani Trophy tie. The association was going through another of its turmoils and the boy did not even make it to the Irani squad. We had to really console him as this came to him as a rude shock. A boy who made it to Australia A XI was not even in the squad of 15 for Rajasthan! Rituraj, however, is made of sterner stuff.

As expected, Rajasthan bowling was faltering. All kind of politics in the team selection was happening. The reigning champions conceded five first innings lead on the trot and were on the verge of being relegated.

That’s when the call-up came. Anil Sinha advised him to bowl his natural style and to his strengths. Till then, Pankaj Singh was not getting the support from the other end. Suddenly, everything changed for the team as the right-arm pacer came from the other end.

He helped the team get two outright victories in their last two outings and was Man of the Match in the Saurashtra match for his six-for in the second innings.It earned the bonus point for the team and took it to the quarterfinals. All of us thought that at last, he had cemented his place.

A greater shock was in store for us when he was dropped from the next match, the quarterfinals against Hyderabad. He had, however, got enough fortitude in him to weather that shock. They could not keep him out of the semifinals at Lahli where a third seamer was required. He managed to outshine Harshal Patel, took 12-82 and won the match for Rajasthan.

Rajasthan vs Haryana (SF) Brief scores: Rajasthan 89 all out (V Saxena 32, H Patel 8/34) & Rajasthan 192 all out (V Saxena 58, R Bist 44, S Rana 4/26, H Patel 2/45, A Mishra 2/38) beat Haryana 97 all out (J Yadav 23, M Sharma 22, R Singh 7/45, P Singh 2/27) & 120 all out (N Saini 23, S Rana 25, P Singh 4/48, R Singh 5/37) by 64 runs