For more than a decade, Rohan Prem has shouldered the burden of his team’s fragile batting and is a just a few hundred runs away from being the highest run-getter for Kerala in Ranji Trophy. This season he has been given the additional responsibility of leading the Ranji Trophy team and the prolific batsmen has accepted the role as a challenge.
The 30-year-old Thiruvananthapuram native, who was has been the stand-in captain for Sreesanth and Sony Cheruvathur, feels honoured at being named skipper for the current season.
“Captaincy is not new to me. I have led Kerala in five matches but it is the first time that I have been made the captain at the start of the season. I look at this as an opportunity to perform. It is challenging no doubt but I relish challenges. My aim will be to give players the confidence and get the best out of them,’’ he said.
“We have a balanced team this season. The three guest stars — Iqbal Abdulla, Jalaj Saxena and Bhavin Thakkar — are experienced and have increased our depth in our batting. We have quality spinners and pacers in our team. Hopefully if things fall in place, we can go places this season,” he added.
Fine with neutral venuesThe new format under which all matches will be played away from home hasn’t worried Rohan a wee bit. “We have played in some of the venues in the past and I think last season the team did well in away matches. Every season we play four matches away from home and an additional four matches will not be an issue. Moreover, the conditions will be the same for both teams. I think the team is good enough to cope with the conditions,” he said.
Reflecting on his and the team’s performance last season, Rohan said the team failed to finish the matches after holding the aces.
“Personally it was a good season but overall we were disappointed after coming close to qualifying. We should have won against Hyderabad as it would have enabled us to qualify. In the match against Jharkhand, which we lost, we took the first innings lead.
“We failed to grab our chances and finish off matches last season. But this time around I feel we have players capable of seeing us through in tough situations. Of course we will be looking not to repeat the mistakes which we did last season,” he said.