Great form: Virandeep Singh (left) in action for Malaysia in a recent cricket game. — Malaysian Cricket Association
PETALING JAYA: The sting of missing out on the ICC T20 World Cup has not faded for national cricket vice-captain Virandeep Singh and he wants the Thailand SEA Games to be Malaysia’s stage for redemption.
The 26-year-old all-rounder admitted the team were still hurting from their October campaign in the Asian qualifiers in Oman.
Then, Malaysia fell to the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, who were bolstered by players originally from cricket powerhouses Pakistan, Sri Lanka and India.
Though Virandeep has maintained brilliant personal form after recently becoming the first cricketer in the world to score 3,000 runs and take 100 wickets in T20 internationals, the collective setback continues to weigh on him.
“It was a decent achievement for me personally, but sadly, we missed out on the World Cup,” said Virandeep.
“I was really hoping we could turn things around in Oman. We could have won, and that would’ve meant qualification.”
Virandeep now has 3,115 runs and 103 wickets in 107 matches for Malaysia since his debut in 2019.
This year alone, he has tallied 674 runs and 30 wickets.
“Records just happen, it’s not something you play for, and they don’t guarantee future performances. The whole team have put in a lot of hard work, so hopefully we’re successful in Thailand,” he said.
Malaysia will enter the SEA Games as the highest-ranked team.
Two formats – T10 (10 overs) and T20 (20 overs) – will be contested at the Asian Institute of Technology Ground in Bangkok starting Dec 9.
“Being the top-ranked team doesn’t guarantee medals. It’s all about how you perform on the day,” he said.
Virandeep expects conditions in Thailand to differ from what Malaysia are used to.
“The weather will be quite cool, around 18˚C or 19˚C, with less rain. The wickets will probably be on the slower side.
“We’ve played on one of the grounds before, so we roughly know what to expect. The other one, not so much.
“One of the grounds is always windy, and the pitch will be slower too. We’ll have to adjust accordingly. But the team have played a lot of cricket this year; we have the experience to handle it.”
Still, he stressed that preparation must translate into action.
“End of the day, no point talking as you have to go out there and perform.
We cannot take any game lightly. We’ll go game by game and hopefully win both gold medals. Anything less would be a failure from our side.”
