Aditya Sarwate (R).
| Photo Credit: File Photo : B. Jothi Ramalingam
Vidarbha all-rounder Aditya Sarwate will play for Kerala this season.
He has obtained the NOC from Vidarbha Cricket Association and will join Tamil Nadu’s B. Aparajith and Madhya Pradesh’s Jalaj Saxena as the third professional player for Kerala this season.
The 34-year-old Sarwate had approached Kerala after ending his nine-year association with Vidarbha as a player. KCA secretary Vinod S. Kumar confirmed that the association will formally sign a contract with the player soon.
“After Shreyas Gopal left for Karnataka, we were looking for a genuine all-rounder who could play in all three formats and Aditya fitted the bill. He has performed creditably for Vidarbha for the last nine seasons and I think his experience and skill will be an asset for Kerala this season,” said Vinod.
As a left-arm spinner, Aditya has taken more than 250 wickets for Vidarbha and he is expected to provide good support for Jalaj Saxena, who has been the main strike bowler for Kerala in the past few seasons.
Only red-ball cricket
Vinod added Jalaj will only play red-ball cricket for Kerala this season.
“We had informed Jalaj that he will be selected only for the Ranji Trophy this season. He has been our strike bowler and leading wicket-taker in Ranji Trophy for the last few seasons and we cannot ignore that. But we felt we needed to groom youngsters for the shorter formats and told Jalaj he was not in our plans for white ball cricket.”
Jalaj, who was keen to play in all three formats, held talks with a few associations but was unable to find a team and the player reluctantly agreed to be part of Kerala’s red-ball squad this season.
