Rajneesh Gurbani IANS
Rajneesh Gurbani IANS

Rajneesh Gurbani, who starred in Vidarbha’s historic victory this Ranji Trophy wants to pick the brains of coach Rahul Dravid after he was selected in the Indian A squad for the upcoming tour of England. Gurbani picked up 39 wickets in the season to emerge as Vidarbha’s leading wicket-taker. “I am excited and eagerly waiting to learn new things from him. He has not seen me, so I will try to get as much knowledge from him as possible,” Gurbani told PTI.

“My dream is to play for India and this is a step ahead, one step before the international level. I know if I do good, may be I will be in the eyes of selectors and I can prove myself. But at present, I am not thinking (about it) because that is my ultimate goal,” he added.

Ahead of the tour to England with India A, Gurbani is keen to live up to the expectations of the national selectors there: “I am grateful to the selectors who had trusted me and selected me for the (India A) squad. I just want to fulfil their expectations in England.”

India A will play a four-day match against England A starting July 16 at Worcester apart from a couple of three-day games against county sides. Gurbani is hoping that he can carry the same form and perform to the best of his abilities in England: “My expectations from this tour is that I want my team to win. It’s a three-match series and hopefully I can contribute to the best of my abilities, but I’ll approach one match at a time. Whichever match I get to play I will think it as biggest match of my career.”

Gurbani admitted that he has started working hard after receiving the India A call: “I am just thinking the way I played in Ranji Trophy, I (should) do the same thing. I don’t want to focus on the results, I will just focus on the process.”