Sitting on the bench was hard to digest: Pawan Negi

While the Delhi Daredevils certainly had a memorable season, Pawan Negi was an unfortunate casualty in the grand scheme of things. Having splashed an audacious 8.5 Crores on him in the auction, he was let down by a few terrible performances with both bat and ball. In addition, Negi became surplus to the Daredevils’ requirements towards the business end of the season.

Speaking to the Asian Age, Negi stated that he was indeed puzzled about the fact that he was kept on the bench. He also added that the Daredevils management didn’t back his abilities.

“I kept wondering why wasn’t I given more opportunities,” Negi told the Asian Age. “And the team management didn’t tell me the reason either. When I was with CSK [Chennai Super Kings], Mahi bhai [MS Dhoni] backed my abilities. Maybe, I feel Delhi didn’t back my skills with bat and ball. Maybe, it was a rotation policy, because I was never told that I was dropped.

“The hardest part was, before every match, I had no clue whether I would play or not. People kept asking me why I didn’t play much. I didn’t have a proper answer.

“Sitting on the bench was hard to digest as I never expected to watch the action from the sidelines. I was mentally down, but I didn’t lose hope. After the season, TA Sekhar and our manager Sunil Valson pepped me up saying that I didn’t get enough opportunities to showcase my abilities.”

Negi, who was a part of the squad for the Asia Cup T20 as well as the World T20 has now been left out of the squad that will tour Zimbabwe later this year.

“I was told that it was sort of a combination [of poor form and tactics],” Negi said. “Though I’m a very positive person, I would say this IPL ended on a negative note for me. I wasn’t surprised a bit that I didn’t make the cut for the Zimbabwe series because I didn’t perform well in the IPL. Now, I will practice hard for the upcoming Ranji season.”