Hyderabad: Jalaj Sahai Saxena, who plays for Kerla, has produced a magnificent performance for India C in recently concluded Deodhar Trophy. A right-hand batsman and off-break bowler, he has also represented the Delhi Capitals and Central Zone cricket team.
Jalaj Saxena became the first player to take a 7-wicket haul in the history of Deodhar Trophy. This was Saxena’s maiden 5-wicket haul in List A cricket and also completed 100 List A wickets with this effort.
In an exclusive interview with ETV, rather than expressing disappointment for not being picked for the national side despite shattering one record after another, he chooses to be positive.
Jalaj recently joints the elite list of the cricketer to have picked up 300 wickets and score 6000 runs.
Jalaj said "It is an honour for me to achieve this milestone, the list of people who have achieved this feat before me, are all legends and I feel privileged. But I am not going to be sad that I have still not managed to make it into Team India. I just want to stay positive."
When asked about how he takes a break from cricket to relax a bit Jalaj said that he does Yoga on a regular basis which has helped him a lot. Yoga is in his family culture and Thorugh yoga he connects to him-self.
Earlier this year, IPL franchise Delhi Capitals bought Saxena at his base price of Rs 20 lakh. But, even there, he did not get a game.
The Madhya Pradesh and India A allrounder, has signed a one-year contract with Kerala as a professional player for the 2016-17 season. When asked about his experience playing for Kerala he said," These two are different cultures. the food, the language everything is different. I had to face a lot of challenges but Kerla never made me feel like an outsider. They treated me like a family member.
Saxena has emerged as one of the best all-rounders in domestic cricket and was awarded the Lala Amarnath Award for best all-rounder by BCCI in January 2016.
When asked about how he feels about the awards he said," As a player consistency is important. BCCI has given me four awards in 4 years which has never happened before. Playing for India A was really important for me. If you do well continuously then you will remain fit. International exposure helps a lot."
"Deodhar Trophy was a big boost for me, even though we could not win. I am disappointed that we could not win but I gave it my 100 per cent. I was the highest wicket-taker of the tournament and winning or losing is part of the game," he added.
When asked about if he is ready to bat lower down the order as Team India requires a batter who can bat well at number five or six, Jalaj said," Ever since I started playing professional cricket, I have opened for Kerala and for India A I have batter at number 7 as well. Thus I am ready to bat at whichever number the team wants me to bat."
