The competition in Indian cricket is definitely one of the toughest out there. Every year, new players pop up, but only a few can stay at the top. Priyank Panchal’s story is one of those. He’s played 127 First-Class matches, 97 List-A games, and 59 T20s. Even though he’s been one of the most reliable batters in domestic cricket, he never got the chance to play for the Indian team in any format. On Monday, he announced his retirement from First-Class Cricket.
Priyank almost got to debut during the South Africa tour in 2021-22 but missed out. He recently accepted that it’s not going to happen for him anymore. In an interview with the Hindustan Times, he mentioned he had been thinking about retirement for a while. “I kept telling myself I should retire. When I first started playing cricket, my big dream was to play for India, and I put in a lot of work for it. But eventually, I had to face reality, and I didn’t see it happening. I did my best, played for India A, and in the Ranji Trophy, but I realized it was time to move on,” he said.
When asked if he regretted not making his India debut, he was honest about it. “Not being able to play is definitely a regret. But it’s also something to be proud of. If the cricketing scale is from 1 to 10, I was at 9. I didn’t get to play, but being in the same dressing room with players like Virat Kohli and Ravichandran Ashwin was a big deal for me. It was a very professional yet welcoming environment, and I learned a lot from it.”
Priyank also shared that scoring tons isn’t everything when it comes to getting a call-up for the national team. “Consistency is important, but timing matters too. If you’re piling on runs but your team isn’t winning, it doesn’t count as much. If you’re scoring just 30 runs but help your team win, that’s what really matters at the international level. I learned this from my experience,” he explained.
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