There will be very few cricketers in the world who have received a message from a robber. The biggest proof of Rajinder Goel's popularity and achievements was that when he took 600 wickets in Ranji Trophy, he got a felicitation letter from Dakshin Bhukha Singh Yadav from Gwalior Jail which said, "You took more than 600 wickets in Ranji Trophy accept my wishes, I am a big fan of yours. I pray to God that you get more success in life". Later Goel had told, "My family was very scared to get those letters. We were afraid that if he has come to know about our house, then he can also ask for money from us. But I was not scared of it at all. I thanked him replying to his letter and sent him my picture too. I do not know whether that dacoit is still alive or not."
It was a huge tragedy of Indian cricket that even after taking 750 wickets at an average of 18.58 in first-class cricket, Rajinder Goel was not found worthy of being selected in the Indian cricket team. After many years, Rajinder Goel had said with a smile, "Indian selectors may not have liked me, but a bandit definitely liked me". Born on 20 September 1942, home to an assistant station master, he studied at the local Vaish High School and then enrolled in a college in Rohtak. Goel started his Ranji career in 1958-59 against Services in Patiala. In this match, he got only 1 wicket but in the next match, he took 9 wickets. Rajendar Goel's attention-grabbing performance came to light when he took 6 wickets for 4 runs from 4 overs against North Punjab and dismissed the team from North Punjab for 54 runs.
In 1973, Goel started playing from Haryana and in his first match, he took 8 wickets by giving 55 runs against Railways. He played for Haryana till his retirement in 1985. When West Indies team came to India in 1974-75, Bishan Bedi was removed from the Indian team as a disciplinary action in the Bangalore Test and was replaced by Rajinder Goel. Goel was told that he would be in the playing XI but Lloyd was not named in the team's slip at the time of the toss. Chandrasekhar, Venkataraghavan and Prasanna were kept in that team. Where the West Indies won that match by 267 runs.
Later another big spinner of the Indian team, Dilip Doshi wrote in his autobiography 'The Spin Punch'. Bedi himself admitted that if Goel had played in that Test, India would have won that match. If he had played in that match, the result of the series would have been something else. I believe Prasanna and Venkataraghavan never struggled to make a place in the Indian team. Due to which the very talented Goel had to sit out.
Sunil Gavaskar writes in his book 'Idols', "I believe that the selectors did not take Rajinder Goel because if he had taken a few wickets, then at least for some time in Bishan Bedi's team Returning would have been difficult and it would have been a problem for them. Later Rajinder Goel himself asked the question, 'If the selectors could feed two off-spinners Prasanna and Venkat in the team, then why were they avoiding feeding two left-arm spinners? Later both Ravi Shastri and Dilip Doshi, who were left-arm spinners, played in a team, but in my time it was wrong to think so."
India has two left-arm spinners who could play for any team in the world but unfortunately could not make it to the Indian team. One was Padmakar Shivalkar from Mumbai and Rajinder Goel from Haryana. He had to stay out of the Indian team because of Bishan Singh Bedi. Prior to Bedi, he could not find a place in the Indian team due to the presence of all-rounders like Bapu Nadkarni, Russian Surti and Salim Durrani. Gavaskar writes in his book 'Idols',' If I had been given the option of playing against either one between Bedi and Goel, I would have always chosen Bedi, because Bedi, would drive you forward and drive the ball. He used to give up, but it was almost impossible to out Goel who always used to flatter trajectory balls.
Another special thing about Goel's game was to tie the batsmen, that was his stamina. Despite being forty years old, he could bowl till the end of the day's play without losing his edge. Although he batted at number 11, he still did not hesitate to hit his favourite sweep shot. Gavaskar writes, "When we used to play against the Northern Territory in the Duleep Trophy, we were afraid to play against Goel instead of Bedi. I could never show my spontaneous game against him. Most of our bowlers who make flat balls make the mistake of putting either short or 'overpriced' balls, so they can be easily shot. Goel never used to do this mistake and even if he did, at that time he was throwing his twenty-fifth or twenty-sixth over."
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