Faiz Fazal justified his selection to the Indian ODI team with an unbeaten fifty against a hapless Zimbabwean side in Harare. On Wednesday, the Vidarbha cricketer earned his first cap from Mahendra Singh Dhoni

Faiz Fazal on Wednesday became only the third cricketer from Vidarbha to represent India when he replaced Karun Nair for the third and final One-Day International against Zimbabwe in Harare. He justified his selection by scoring an unbeaten 55 as India coasted to a  10-wicket win to sweep the series 3-0 .

Only Prashant Vaidya and Umesh Yadav are the other two from Vidarbha to have played for the Indian cricket team. Both Vaidya and Yadav are pace bowlers.

The 30-year-old Fazal had almost lost hope of getting selected for India but was surprised when he was picked for the tour of Zimbabwe last month. This was purely on the basis of his fine domestic performance.

The Nagpur-born Faiz fazal scored a century playing for Rest of India against Mumbai in the Irani Trophy in March. In January, he scored a century in the Deodhar Trophy final playing for India A vs India B.

On Wednesday, the left-handed opening batsman realised his dream when he was handed the India cap by none other than skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni  .

Though the result of the match in inconsequentioal, Fazal can make an impact with his performance ahead of the three-match Twenty20 International series which starts on Saturday.

Fazal, who has 79 first class matches under his belt, has been through the domestic grind for close to a decade now, and was playing league cricket in England when he got selected. He was part of the Rajasthan Royals squad for four seasons before he was left out in 2012. He scored 183 runs in 11 innings for the Royals.

“This is a massive surprise for me,” Fazal told ESPNcricinfo after he was picked for the Zimbabwe tour.

“For two years before this, I kept looking up to see if I was picked every time a squad was announced. But I was disappointed each time.

“I’ve tried to consciously steer away from thoughts about selection, so to receive this news early morning from India is a big surprise, but I’m happy. It’s funny how when you stop expecting something you have always chased, things start to happen.”

The Nagpur-born has 5341 runs in first class at an average of 40.15 with 11 centuries and a highest score of 200 not out. He can roll his arm over too with some medium pace bowling and also has one four-wicket haul in his domestic career.

source: http://www.sports.ndtv.com / NDTV Sports / Home> Cricket> News / by Sandip Sikdar / June 15th, 2016