I enjoy being on the field and playing my part: Vasavada

The prolific Saurashtra batter, who played a big part also as a captain, opens up on his team’s Ranji success this season and his career so far

From scoring a match-winning hundred against Bengal at Rajkot to claim the ‘player-of-the-match’ award, and help Saurashtra claim its maiden Ranji Trophy title three years ago, to be the top-scorer with a crucial 81 against the same opponent in an away final and enable his side to secure its second crown, ‘player-of-the-series’ Arpit Vasavada has remained a stellar figure for his team.

The 34-year-old, an unsung domestic hero who captained Saurashtra in the absence of Jaydev Unadkat this season, is enjoying his time on the field rather than putting himself under pressure by the weight of his own expectations.

In an interview with The Hindu, Vasavada spoke about his cricketing journey so far. Excerpts: 

Q: How do you look back at the fantastic season?

A: From the start of the season, when we travelled to Assam, we got to know that Jaydev had been selected for India. That was a moment for all of us to cherish that finally, he got a chance to play for the country again. But that put me under pressure because I was supposed to lead the side in his absence.

From the first match, I never thought about winning the tournament or even qualifying. I was just going match by match. The first two matches were average for us as we got the first innings lead. We had some good individual performances.

The momentum-changing moment came in the third match against Mumbai. We were under pressure. Mumbai had won its first two matches and we did not have any outright wins. They had a very good side. They had Suryakumar Yadav, Ajinkya Rahane, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Sarfarz Khan. They were playing with a full side. Winning that match instilled confidence and belief in us that we could win without our star players.