Eighteen-year-old Himmat Singh was captaining Delhi in the Cooch Behar Trophy (Under-19) in Kolkata when he received news of his name being included in the Ranji Trophy squad for the opening round match against Saurashtra.

Himmat has scored over 300 runs this season in Under-19 cricket, but the middle-order batsman himself wasn’t quite expecting the call-up to the senior team. “It is a half-dream come true for me. My aim is to play for India. But I wasn’t expecting to be included in the Ranji Trophy squad so soon. I can’t believe that I will get a chance to share a Delhi dressing room alongside greats like Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag,” Himmat said Saturday.

Earlier this month, Himmat made 181 against Tripura in Agartala in the four-day Under-19 game after making 283 runs, including two centuries against Punjab and Himachal Pradesh, in the One-day format.

Three centuries at the start of the season has given Himmat confidence. Last season he managed just one century at the Under-19 level, that too in the last match of the season. “Last season was a disappointment. now that I have started well, I want to make the most of this season. I have also been able to convert my starts,” Himmat said. Because he bats at No.5 and at times has only has the tail for company.

“I would say I wasn’t throwing away my wicket but in order to score at a brisk pace I would get out and fall short of a century. I have not changed anything major in my batting but mentally I am trying to be mature,” Himmat, who trains at Sonnet Club, added.

Squad: Gautam Gambhir (captain), Virender Sehwag, Unmukt Chand, Milind Kumar, Vaibhav Rawal, Rajat Bhatia, Puneet Bisht

(wk), Parvinder Awana, Navdeep Saini, Sumit Narwal, Varun Sood, Shivam Sharma, Himmat Singh, Pradeep Sangwan, Dhruv Shorey. Coach: Vijay Dahiya. Manager: Manoj Kapoor.