Naman Ojha wants to make his journey count

Bulletin by Shwe Wai

KIMBERLEY: The India A team wete on tour to Zimbabwe and Kenya five years ago. They moved to Kenya when their No 1 wicket-keeper Dinesh Karthik was called up to join the Indian squad for the tours of the Netherlands for a triseries and England for the ICC Champions Trophy 2004.

In Karthik's place, a reserve stumper answering to the name of Mahendra Singh Dhoni stepped up and his understudy was an equally unknown Naman Ojha, flown in just for the Kenya leg. Ojha had played for Madhya Pradesh in domestic cricket and was expected to be a dasher in the limited-over format.

Dhoni stole the show on the Kenya leg and from there on it was no looking back. Ojha came, saw and left without ever being in the picture again. “I started my cricket at the same time with Dhoni but today he has gone so far ahead. I am still just playing domestic cricket,” Ojha rues in an interview with iplt20.com

But five years on, Ojha has taken the first steps towards being back in the national frame. He just made the 30-man provisional squad for the ICC World T20 but missed out again because Dhoni is numero uno.

But the bigger step-up for him is the fact that the DLF Indian Premier League provides him with the best opportunity to make a comeback with a serious bid. “Yes it is. I was not converting 40s and 50s into big scores. I tried to play too many strokes against the spinners. If you see my record I have scored a lot of 40, 45, 50 but when the spinners come I have been impatient and try to play too many strokes,” reveals Ojha.