Had someone mentored me I would have handled my career better, admits RP Singh

After making his debut in 2006, the left-arm seamer, RP Singh was touted as the next great thing in the country, thanks to his swing-bowling. However, with the looming presence of Zaheer Khan and the talented Irfan Pathan, chances came in sporadically for the pacer. Following all of this debacle, the pacer announced his retirement in 2018, at the age of 32. However, he recalled that if he had a mentor, he would have handled the situation much better. 

“After the recovery, I played domestic cricket and then played international cricket again. But I feel I was not able to accept that I made a few mistakes. Had someone else been there to mentor me I would have handled it better,” the 34-year-old said.

After the infamous 2008 axe for the 34-year-old, he had to wait for three more years before making his comeback against England at The Oval. In the 2008 series, he was dropped in the favour of fellow left-arm pacer, Pathan, with skipper MS Dhoni taking the strong decision. 

“I don’t think I was affected by the leak. The England series we are talking about, I didn’t get a wicket in Indore. Obviously people think they will get 2 or 3 more chances. But it was not meant to be. Some get 5 chances, some get 10 chances the lucky ones,” he told Sports Tak.

The UP pacer also admitted that whenever his performance was at a low, he was sent to play on the Indian domestic circuit. According to the pacer, it would have been a better decision to stay with the team, which would have given him a quality practice. 

“But many times it has happened to me, whenever my performance dipped, I was directly sent to play domestic cricket. Sometimes, people tend to stay with the team even if their performance dips and get good quality practice. The moment you go to domestic cricket, you won’t get that quality competition."