Irish Simi plays England, India on mind

There’s an Indian arm in the Anglo-Irish battle, and it comes from the land of warriors — Punjab. Meet Simranjit Singh, Ireland’s allrounder who is set to take on England in the three-match One-Day International series that is part of the ICC’s inaugural Super League which has a qualification spot for the 2023 cricket World Cup to be held in India at stake.

That’s a huge motivation for Simi — as Simranjit is known in Irish circles — as he dreams of playing at grounds “full of passionate fans” in his country of birth.

For now, he has England in his sights. “At the moment, my main role is to bowl those middle overs, contain the scoring and get wickets... then go bat with the tail and try and finish the game off,” the off-spinning allrounder told this newspaper ahead of the first ODI starting in Southampton, England, on Thursday.

Teams could be living in a bio-bubble and playing in an empty stadium but are not short of stimulus. “The motivation is that we are back playing cricket, to know that fans around the world would be watching us on TV. We’re definitely excited to get back on the park. A couple of months ago we were thinking sport-wise it could be the end of this year,” the 33-year-old, who has so far played 18 ODIs and 24 T20s, says.

As most of the boys in

Simranjit Singh

India, Simi began playing cricket when he was 12. “Our house was close to the PCA Stadium in Mohali. I played at the PCA until I was 17 or 18 before moving to Ireland in 2006,” he recalls.

It was difficult a start. As a student he “took up part time jobs, did cooking and laundry and played cricket as well.”

“Challenges were many, on and off the field. Just to go to a different country, get used to the culture... the language barrier was there obviously and the cricket played was very different initially. I had to break into the system and do better than the guys who had grown up in the system to get selected ahead of them,” Simi says.

“When I started club cricket, my first game was for the second team. I gradually worked my way up to the first team and three years later, got picked for Leinster Lightning, the first class side. Two or three years down the line I made it to the Ireland team, in 2017,” he explains.

On his way up, Simi has looked up to a lot of players. “Watching Sachin Tendulkar bat was fascinating. I admire Rohit Sharma’s batting as well, he is something special. Now, with my role changed to a bowling allrounder, I try and watch a lot of bowlers — Saqlain Mushtaq, Rashid Khan, Imran Tahir — just to see how they deliver the ball,” he says.

“My role has changed over the years. I primarily started as a batsman and slowly developed my bowling as well as I could see space for a spinner in the Ireland team,” he adds.

Like every other cricketer, Simi does want to play in the IPL. “It’s such a big tournament, I’d love to give it a shot,” he says, fingers crossed.