Former Hong Kong Captain Anshuman Rath to play domestic cricket in India for Odisha – Former Hong Kong skipper Anshuman Rath is all set to play domestic cricket in India for the state of Odisha in the upcoming 2021-22 season. Anshuman Rath, who holds the Indian passport, went through one year of the mandatory cooling-off period. After the cooling-off period, he became eligible to play as an Indian under the BCCI ambit. Before Odisha, he wanted to play for Vidarbha but he was left out of their set-up altogether for the truncated 2020-21 season.
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“I had served a year’s cooling-off period, played club cricket in Nagpur and hoped to be picked for Vidarbha. But when things didn’t happen, I had to look for a new opportunity, and that is when Odisha happened. I can speak Oriya, I was born in Bhubaneswar, so in many ways this was a logical next step for me,” Rath told ESPNcricinfo.
Rath also expressed desire to play in IPL as a local player after making an impact in the Ranji Trophy tournament. At the moment he is in Bhubaneswar playing inter-district matches.
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“I have spent over a month with the squad. The team is talented, but have been flying under the radar for some reason. The talent is abundant, and I hope we can all make a difference this season. For me personally, it’s about doing whatever I can to put myself up for selection. The best way to do that is keep scoring runs wherever I play,” he added.
Recently Odisha named former India cricketer and one of the greatest batsmen in Indian domestic cricket, Wasim Jaffer as their head coach. Rath is looking forward to working with him.
“Being an opener myself, it was good to pick his brains at the short camp we had. Obviously, he has just come in, so I haven’t had a great deal of time. But from the short camp, the takeaways were plenty. It’s not hard to see why he’s respected so much. He can be a tough coach [and] at the same time be someone who can put his hand around your shoulder when you need it. His record speaks for itself. If I can tap into all that experience, it’ll be beneficial to me and the team,” he said.
Rath has played 18 ODIs and 20 T20Is for Hong Kong. Rath decided to step away from his Hong Kong career after they lost ODI status.
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