Subrayen wants to fill Tahir's shoes
Rising young prospect Prenelan Subrayen has set his sights on becoming the number one spinner at the Sunfoil Dolphins this season.
The 18-year-old is yet to play four-day cricket and played his only three-day first-class match last season, representing KwaZulu-Natal in the Cricket South Africa (CSA) Provincial Three-Day Challenge.
A bowling allrounder, Subrayen made a massive impression with his right-arm off breaks during the MiWay T20 Challenge last season when he featured in four games for the Durban franchise taking three wickets at an average of 9.33 and economy of 2.80.
He was also a member of the South Africa team that finished third at the ICC Under-19 World Cup during the winter.
With the Dolphins having lost their main slow bowler Imran Tahir to the bizhub Highveld Lions during the off-season, the race is on between Subrayen, Keshav Maharaj and Tabraiz Shamsi.
“I’m hoping to play because it is one of my goals to cement myself in the Dolphins team,” he told supersport.com. “But there’s a fair amount of spinners here at the union contending for that spot vacated by Imi (Tahir).
“It will be a good challenge for all of us.”
There was a suggestion this week that Subrayen is ahead of the queue after he was named in the team for a three-day warm-up match against the Nashua Mobile Cape Cobras.
But the teenager remains modest, saying: “I’m hoping that I’m up there and working really hard to try and get there. I want to become the best at what I do.
“My expectations have remained the same, I always had high expectations for myself. I think you set you standards at a certain level and then you aim at maintaining them.”
Subrayen has a rookie contract with the Dolphins, his first professional one, and he admits to being thrilled upon learning the news.
He then went to Australia with the Junior Proteas, playing all six matches and also earning a man-of-the-match showing with 4-24 against England in the quarter-finals.
“The World Cup was an amazing experience and it really grew me as a cricketer,” he said. “I haven’t really been here much for pre-season because I was away in Australia.
“The little time I spent with the team has been great and I would have loved to have had more of an involvement in the off-season.”
As for his showings last year, that helped stake his claim for the spinning spot and his targets for the season, he added: “My recent form would definitely have helped the selectors.
“Whatever we say, the stats never lie and if you want to do well you have to have the numbers to show you can. That’s the main thing and I think in a small way I showed what I could do.
“My main goal now is to first cement myself as a regular player in the Dolphins team. From there you just take things as they come, embracing the positives and learning from the negatives.”
