It was highly bizarre when JKCA appointed Himachal Pradesh’s Paras Dogra as a guest player. He is 40 and already beyond his prime. Also, J&K is filled with talent and there was absolutely no need for a guest player– especially since all the earlier guest players had failed in the past.
Then he was appointed as the captain of the team, which again raised eyebrows. An outsider who did not know J&K players was handed the captaincy. But it wasn’t a surprise since the current JKCA administration is known for making such decisions.
All said, having Paras in the Ranji Trophy team was still somehow fine since he has the experience. However, he failed miserably with the bat– scoring zero fifty in five matches.
With a strike rate of 114.9 in T20s– which is abysmal in current-day cricket– and having completely failed in Ranji, one hoped that JKCA would at least not consider him for the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. But he was made the captain.
Now four matches on, his scores so far have been 28 (25) vs Jharkhand, 34 (39) vs Delhi and 17 (16) vs Himachal. These scores and strike rates don’t even match the Test standards currently; now imagine he doing it in T20s!
J&K lost two of the matches and his abysmal strike rate was one of the major reasons behind it. Some might argue that J&K has won matches under his captaincy but when we look closely, the decision-making has also been strange.
No doubt Paras is a domestic cricket stalwart but with highly talented youngsters like Nasir Lone and Musaif Ajaz warming benches, he should voluntarily sit for the remaining matches. The expectations from JKCA to make this decision are zero but one hopes Paras himself takes this call for the sake of the J&K team and players.