The 26-year-old uncapped right-arm pacer Navdeep Saini has recently earned the call-up in India’s standby squad for the upcoming World Cup. He is ready and confident to do well if he gets an opportunity in the forthcoming World Cup.
At present, the Delhi pacer is serving for Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in the ongoing IPL 2019. He feels that IPL confidence will give him a big boost to take the higher step in his cricket career.
After RCB beat the host Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) on Friday (19th April) night, Navdeep Saini said, “Absolutely (I’m ready)… The confidence of doing well in IPL will give me a big boost. If I get a chance in World Cup, I hope to do well.”
The 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup will be held in England and Wales from 30th May to 14th July. A total of ten teams will participate in this competition, including the two-time World Cup winners India. India will begin their World Cup journey on 5th June against South Africa at Southampton.
Meanwhile, on 15th April, the national selectors announced the 15-member Team India squad for the upcoming World Cup. Later, they also revealed the names of five standby players for the forthcoming World Cup. Along with Ishant Sharma, Axar Patel, Rishabh Pant and Ambati Rayudu, the selectors have also named Navdeep Saini as the standby players for the upcoming World Cup.
Talking about his World Cup preparation, the Delhi pacer said, “We talk during the matches but the most important thing is to pay full attention at the nets. If you do well at the nets, you will do well in a match as well.
“My dad has always told me to give your 110 per cent effort wherever you play. I’m putting in that extra effort always in practice session and in a match.”
I had a discussion with Dale Steyn – Navdeep Saini
The pacer is also learning from his RCB teammate Dale Steyn, who has recently joined as a replacement of Nathan Coulter-Nile.
The Indian pacer said, “I had a discussion with him on the eve of the match. He just told me to bowl the same way and not try anything different.”
Navdeep Saini is happy with the extra bounce at Eden Gardens
Navdeep Saini was the best economical bowler for his team during their latest high-scoring match against KKR. The right-arm pacer had the bowling figures of 4-0-31-1. He is impressed with the extra bounce at Eden Gardens, and he used that against the in-form Andre Russell.
Navdeep Saini said, “I have bowled on other wickets but never generated this kind of bounce anywhere. The plan was to bowl length deliveries as I was getting that extra bounce.
“Against (Andre) Russell, the strategy was to hit the deck hard to generate a bit of extra bounce.”
The Eden Gardens’ meeting was the second meeting between KKR and RCB in this season. The visiting side RCB managed to score 213/4 (20 overs) in the first batting, thanks to Virat Kohli’s (100 runs) century and Moeen Ali’s attacking 66 runs off 28 balls.
In reply, KKR was under pressure from the beginning of their innings. Though Andre Russell (65) and Nitish Rana (85*) extraordinarily fought till the last moment, KKR fell short by ten runs (203/5 in 20 overs) of RCB’s total.
Earlier in this season, they met at Bengaluru where KKR won that match by five wickets (with five balls to spare). That match was similar to their latest meeting as Andre Russell’s late bashing helped KKR to chase the 206 runs target in the final over.