A view on world’s underrated cricketers

Modern Cricket is blessed with so many talented youngsters. The decade has seen the likes of Dale Steyn, Ben Hilfenhaus, Steven Finn, Mohammad Aamer who have made the lives of batsmen more difficult. While at the later stage, pinch hitters like David Warner, Craig Kieswetter and Kieron Pollard have maintained the dominance of bat to ball. Some players always remain in the cover page for their game or celebrity status. While some others have failed to become popular in the media despite of their heroic deeds. Let’s have a look at some players of this under-rated group.

Morne Morkel: Morne Morkel is an important part of South Africa’s impressive raw pace attack. An out-and-out fast bowler who has the pace and height to trouble the best. The ability of the lanky fast bowler to extract bounce and bowl genuinely fast, impressed Allan Donald. Unlike his brother Albie Morkel who is a famous All-Rounder and a regular part of the South African ODI and T20 team, elder Morne has not got so many opportunities due to frequent injuries. He is a regular part of the Proteas Test squad, but remains an underdog due to the presence of Dale Steyn who is currently the no.1 ranked pacer in the world.

But both his attitude and physical strength have been his plus points. In the last series against India, Gautam Gambhir, the then no.1 ranked Test batsman, was found struggling against his height. Though Steyn dominated again in that series, Morne Morkel succeeded to show his impact, 92 wickets in just 26 test is enough to speak about his talent.

Nuwan Kulasekara: Nuwan Kulasekara of Sri Lanka was ranked the number one bowler in one day internationals not that long ago. He made an instant impression in his first ODI itself, against England at Dambulla in November 2003. From a bustling run-up and whippy open-chested action, he generates lively pace, moves the ball off the seam and can reverse-swing the ball. Most importantly though, he can maintain a tight line and length. Apart from bowling, his remarkable contribution with the bat lower down the order has proven to be quite handy at times though he has not been tagged as an All-Rounder. A maiden test fifty against England at Lord’s in 2006 is well known for his fans. Though he is not a regular part of the Lankan Test squad, he has been the main bowler for them in the ODIs for the last two years having bagged 94 wickets in 79 matches averaging 28.92 with an economy rate of 4.52 and an impressive S/R of 38.3. Despite being the no.1 pacer, he was ignored during the IPL-2 auction by all the teams which proves his under-rated status.

Tamim Iqbal: Bangladesh Cricket has not advanced a lot. They are still in the learning phase and seems to be improving. They have succeeded to maintain their Test team poster mainly because of one player i.e. Tamim Iqbal. He is the key to getting Bangladesh off to a flier at the top of the order. The left-hander is regarded as one of the most exciting prospects in Bangladesh cricket and is arguably the hardest hitter of the cricket ball in the country. His elegance and style through the off side is a treat to watch but his trademark shot is the straight drive, capped with a text-book like follow-through. Indian Cricket fans will never forget his counter attack against Zaheer Khan which led his side win in the 2007 World Cup first round match knocking out India. Like his team mates, this 21 year old is not so famous for the continuous loss of his team. Though he has not an extra ordinary average, he has proven his worth when it matters.

Robin Uthappa: Tall and robust Robin Uthappa was the highest scorer in the 2006-07 Ranji season. Though being a wicketkeeper-batsman at one time, Uthappa has since given up the big gloves to concentrate on batting, and now occasionally bowls medium pace.

As a batsman he has always been attractive to watch, hard-hitting, with every shot in the book, unafraid to hit the ball in the air. The shots that he played against Brett Lee straight over his head can be hardly seen by any other batsman. He has also been a useful member of the Indian under-19 team that won the Asia Cup as well. The extremely skilled boy scored a well-paced 86 at Indore on his ODI bebut against England early in 2006 when he got a chance to play in place of out of form Virender Sehwag. Besides this, how can one forget his nerveless unbeaten 47 off only 33 balls that helped India seal a rousing win against England on 5 September, 2007.

Although he is a genuine opener, he has batted as a floater lower down the order for India most of the times as opening slots have been taken by others. But he has also shown his talent batting at no.7 as well. The kind of mayhem Robin Uthappa can cause was evident in the IPL and it would be well worth a try to check one more time if he can do the same for India in the ODIs. If need be, he can keep wickets as well. With the failure of Ravindra Jadeja at the top level, Uthappa is likely to play at the crucial no.7 spot in the upcoming 2011 World Cup. Please Click here to check his recent interview

Phillip Hughes: He started his Test career with a four ball duck at Johannesburg, but did not look back further by hitting two centuries against South Africa in Durban in 2009. In addition to his Test call-up, Hughes was the Bradman Young Cricketer of the Year, the Sheffield Shield Player of the Year and won the Blues’ Steve Waugh Medal. Pretty impressive stuff for a young man who grew up on a banana farm in northern New South Wales.

There are not many who can score 615 runs in 7 test matches averaging 51.25 with the highest score of 160. He plays T20s for New South Wales with an Average of 48.60, but has not been considered for ODIs for Australia for his comparatively poor S/R. Now he is back in Australian Test squad for the two match test series against India in the coming October after being ruled out due to injury.

Jonathan Trott: Ian Jonathan Leonard Trott has played only 13 tests for England so far, but has shown a lot of promise for the future. He followed in the footsteps of Kevin Pietersen, committing his future to England then becoming an Ashes-winning batsman when he hit a hundred on Test debut at The Oval. The no.3 headache in Tests for England seems to be solved by this aggressive right hander. 1155 runs in 13 tests with an average of 55 and 352 runs in 6 ODIs at an average of 70.40 is enough to highlight his consistency. His highest test score Is 226 against Bangladesh, but out of his three test tons, the last one of 183 at The Lord’s in the recently concluded series against Pakistan, is the best. Despite tremendous talent, he is not in the news so much, reason best known to the media.

Saeed Ajmal: Pakistani off spinner Saeed Ajmal is a useful contributor for his team in all three forms of the game. At the age of 30, the off spinner received a call-up to the Pakistan squad for the Asia Cup. But after that he has used all the opportunities given to him.

He made an immediate impression with his subtle clever variations, unafraid to use the doosra. But his career took off with a series of ODI performances that bewildered Australia in Dubai and Abu Dhabi where he gave away a few runs and his doosra was highly unreadable. Once the ICC called him for suspect bowling action. But the pressure didn’t get to him and immediately after, he played a vital role in Pakistan’s 2009 World T20 title. He used to bottle up the middle overs with Shahid Afridi regularly. He ended the joint second-highest wicket-taker in the tournament, with an exemplary economy rate as batsmen around the world struggled to attack a big turning doosra or his changes in flight, pace and angle. The economy rate of slightly more than 4 in ODIs, is the proof of his tight bowling.

With the inconsistent performance of Danish Kaneria, the regular leg spinner of the Pakistan Test squad, Ajmal has cemented his place now in the test squad too after the remarkable show against England in the last series. But unlike the contemporary spinners like Harbhajan Singh, Graeme Swann, Daniel Vettori etc, he is not so famous.

Scott Styris: All rounder Scott Styris has been a consistent performer for New Zealand over the years, but still remains an under-dog. Originally a seamer, a knee injury forced him to take his batting more seriously, and he switched from being a bowler who can bat into being a batsman who occasionally bowls.

He has scored 4056 runs from 169 ODIs for the black caps averaging 32.70 with the highest score being 141. As a bowler, he has taken 128 wickets as well from these ODIs with an average of 34.87, economy rate of 4.74 and S/R of 44.0. But due to frequent injuries,he has managed to play only 29 tests. In a bid to prolong his career in the limited-overs formats, he announced his retirement from Tests in February 2008. With the 2011 World Cup drawing nearer, Styris’ experience will be vital for the Kiwis at the sub-continent.

Where are the spinners dude?

Mahender Singh Dhoni has opined for a bigger panel of fast bowlers and rotate them from time to time for several tournaments as it’s more difficult for the pace bowlers than the batsmen to keep their fitness perfect due to the overdue of the games Team India is playing. Most of the ex-cricketers and the critics have craved for the same for a long time in order to improve India’s dismal performances overseas. In the past, the team has paid a huge price for the paucity of good quick bowlers as our spinners weren’t half as effective on seamer friendly surfaces. Anyone who could bowl quick was fast-tracked to first-class level and eventually to International cricket. Ishant Sharma, Irfan Pathan, Sudeep Tyagi, Jaydev Unadkat and Jaskarandip Singh are a few names in this list.

In due course of time, we got so obsessed with the fast bowlers that we ignored the spinners. We believed that our spin headed country will never feel the need of quality spinners in future.Therefore, we asked our curators to prepare sporting tracks at the domestic level to encourage the fast bowlers. Then it was the T20 revolution (IPL) which bound the spinners, as well as the faster bowlers defensive rather than going for wickets.

Despite of such attempts, people will argue that we still don’t have the expected pool of fast bowlers. We have hardly a single bowler who can deliver over 140 KPH consistently at the International level like the bowlers of Australia, South Africa, England, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, West Indies and New Zealand. It is because of the weather condition, geographical situation of the country and the lack of International bowling academies.

India had some great spinners in the past.Chandrasekhar,Venkat Raghavan,Prasanna,Sivaramakrisnan are a few of those names. Few years ago, we have one of the greatest Indian spinner ever,Anil Kumble, who announced his retirement after winning the Border-Gavaskar Trophy last time. It was Harbhajan Singh all the way after Kumble as he was matured well and was the regular ODI spinner for India after the 2003 World Cup.

But somehow, the Turbanator failed to deliver as expected. He bowled well in some matches and at the same time went wicketless also in some. Once he was dropped from the team for not taking wickets consistently, Ramesh Powar and Piyush Chawla were preferred then. But their lack of experience at the International level played a vital role which proved to be the main cause of their inexistence in the national squad now.

In the mid and late 90′s and 2000′s, some other bowlers came and went.Sunil Joshi,Nikhil Chopra,Vijay Bhardwaj,Sairaj Bahutule,Murali Kartik,Amit Mishra are a few of those names.People may agree that Murali Kartik needs another break, but the selectors seem to be ignoring him time to time.

Currently,Pragyan Ojha and Ravichandran Ashwin seem to be two reliable spinners besides Harbhajan Singh. But some young talented spinners like Kulamani Parida,Mohnish Parmar,Iqbal Abdullah,Rajesh Pawar etc were ignored by the National selectors and the reason might be the zonal biasing best known to them. But most people will argue that India failed to groom a young spinner after the retirement of Anil Kumble. Depending too much on Harbhajan Singh might cost the team heavily in future. But where are the spinners ?

Harbhajan Singh is now the main spinner of his IPL Team Mumbai Indians.In the last edition of IPL,he bowled pretty well as per the need of T20 being the 2^nd most economic bowler of the tournament.He also showed some bravery with the bat as well.This indicates him as a good All-Rounder for the T20s for some extent.When it comes to Tests and ODIs,he has bowled economically,he got five wickets against RSA at the Eden Gardens to help India win the test,level the series and retain the no.1 status,but failed to take wickets on a consistent basis.

Let’s consider the recent past and the role of our spinners now.In the first two Tests against Sri Lanka in the recently concluded series, both Harbhajan and Ojha were off colour. In fact both of them looked quite listless, which in turn made the Indian attack look rather pedestrian.

In the 3rd test,Ojha was upto the mark and India won,but consistency is still a big task specially in ODIs.

A good spinner is not the one who runs through a side on a crumbling surface but the one who makes his presence felt even on the flattest of tracks.Anil Kumble was the best example for this. In fact,if you can’t take wickets, try creating pressure by keeping the batsman quiet. If you can’t breach his technique, challenge his ego,tempt him to go for the big shots,deceive by your flight,but don’t just try to save yourself from being hit.

Yet the situation at the top may not be as alarming, but the scenario a step below is quite disappointing. These days, no spinner in India seems to succeed in the longer format of the game. Most spinners at the first class level prefer to bowl quicker and flatter instead of tossing the ball. Even at the School level, kids mostly prefer to be a batsman. If anyone wants to be a bowler, he prefers to be a pacer and very few, who are bowling spin, fear to flight the bowl.

So producing good quality spinner is also the need of the hour.There is every possibility that the overdose of T20 Cricket might destroy the career of a young spinner. BCCI, therefore, needs to prepare some more spin friendly grounds, teach the young talents by the experts like Kumble and save Indian Test Cricket thereby, otherwise only some ordinary spinners will be representing India in the future.

Will the flexibility in the batting order serve the purpose?

In another 8 months, the world cricket is going to witness the Biggest Cricket War. The sub continent nations like IND-SL-BAN are going to host the 2011 ICC ODI Cricket World Cup.The preparation by all the cricket playing nations are in a full swing and are gearing up for the most important tournament which comes once in 4 years. Let’s have a view over our team’s(India) preparation especially the batting which has always been our strength.

There is no doubt about our opening combination as we have the two best openers in the world, Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag.

Gautam Gambhir, though he has not played any World Cup, looks determined and likely to play at No. 3 this time.

Yuvraj Singh has proved to be the best batsman in the middle order and playing at No.4 though he is not at his best recently.

The skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni himself have promoted and demoted according to the situation the batting order but, batting at No.5 Position has been the best for him.

Suresh Raina is currently the best from the younger lot and can make big difference at No.3 which he has already proved his mettle in the Indian Premier League (IPL) while playing for Chennai Super Kings (CSK). But, since Gambhir also opened few times in the past, so he is the first choice to play at No.3. Raina, though can be a good finisher if he asked to bat down the order at No.6 position.

For No.7, there few options Robin Uttappa, Irfan Pathan and Ravindra Jadeja.Besides this, India has also tried Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli.From the three batsmen,Uthappa can prove to be the finisher since his S/R clocks to 92 in ODIs.Ravindra Jadeja has wasted the chances given to him. He hasn’t fared well either with ball or with the bat. There is a serious contention for this position along with the proven all rounder Irfan Pathan.

Now, the more important aspect is the time.Since there is no much time left for the preparation for the world cup event 2011 and more over India has only 8 more ODIs to play at home before the event.The final squad with a PERMANENT BATTING ORDER should be addressed immediately,which will help players to prepare mentally for the allocated batting positions.

One more major issue Indian team facing is the burn out. India is playing non stop cricket for the last 1 year and all the key players are getting injured in each and every series and it has lot do Specially with our openers, who either were injured or have opted out due to fitness problem before an important series.Because of this major reak down,in the last 1 year we have tried the combination of Tendulkar+Sehwag,Sehwag+Gambhir and Tendulkar+Gambhir for the opening pair in the last 1 year.

Because of the absence of either opener,the No.3 was also affected and the position was experimented with too many batsmen. The batsmen who played at No.3 were Rohit Sharma,Virat Kohli,Dinesh Karthik,Suresh Raina and M S Dhoni.

Early in the year,2010,Yuvraj Singh was also injured and prompted Virat Kohli to bat at No.4.Thus the entire batting order has faced the flexibility issue in the recent past which is actually not a good sign as the World Cup event is approaching near.

Let’s consider the ongoing Tri-Series between IND-SL-NZ itself.Sachin Tendulkar has opted out for rest,Gautam Gambhir,along with Harbhajan Singh,has been rested due to fitness problem.So,currently Dinesh Karthik has taken the opening position with Virender Sehwag while Rohit Sharma has been preferred over Virat Kohli at the no.3 position.These two players (Dinesh Karthik and Rohit Sharma) know very well that SachinTendulkar and Gautam Gambhir are certain for the upcoming World Cup playing 11 at their respective positions unless an injury and hence,they still don’t have their place in the team line up.

And because of this make shift in the batting order,has created many problems.The skipper himself has tried at No.3,4,5,6 and 7 and thinks that the flexibility has been good for the team.(But if we consider the few matches were we lost badly,the flexibility in the batting order was one of the main reasons).

After India’s debacle against the black caps in the ongoing Tri series,Dhoni may plan to promote Suresh Raina at No.3 because of his current form.We know,the best batsman of the team should bat at No.3.Rahul Dravid was batting at this position who provided the solidity in the middle order.Gambhir was giving good support from this position untill injury.Raina,too,can manage himself at No.3 but with Gambhir’s return Raina may have go back to play at No.6.

The team management should fix the batting order for Raina and should look for the long term goal rather than solving the short term by sending Raina at no.3.

The upcoming series against the world no.1 Aussies will be crucial for Team India at home.Hopefully,the world cup rehearsal will go in a smooth way without any injury.

The sooner the team management addresses this all more important issue, the better is for the Indian cricket.India is a cricket craze driven country and the billion people will be pinned lots of hopes on the World cup event which will be played at home.

Gary Kirsten - Needed any more?

Gary Kirsten’s contract is likely to be extended after the ongoing series against South Africa as the coach of Team India till 2011 World Cup. As a coach, Gary was unknown before he took the post of main coach of Team India. Under his guidance, Indian test team became the world no.1 in ICC Test rankings. In ODIs, the Men In Blue performed very well initially and till now they have won 6 bilateral series among last 7. But Indian Blue Tigers failed to win or at least go to the semi-finals in ICC events may it be T20 WC-2009 or ICC Champions Trophy under Kirsten.

Gary Kirsten has also managed to appoint his choice Eric Simons as the Bowling Consultant of Team India. He is also trying to convince BCCI to make Mike Young as the permanent Fielding Coach of Team India who was just appointed one series before and Indian fielding was well observed in that series.

Recently the news of South Africa is also eyeing to appoint Gary Kirsten as their coach after Mickey Arthur resigned from the post was also holding its own. But Gary denied being offered by the South African Board. One of his closest friends said,”Gary is very happy to be the coach of Team India and he has no objections. He thinks Team India as his own team. He is getting $ 30,000 US Dollars for being the coach of India and that’s why he does not want to go to his home country leaving India because he knows that the South African board won’t afford him so much money for the job.”The person who once came to media because of criticising the Indian pitches in his own diary is now unwilling to leave India.

History says that India has won the 1983 WC and 2007 T20 WC without any permanent coach. When we are preparing the team for another ICC event i.e. 2011 WC, do we need a coach and waste money even if the improvement is none?Yuvraj Singh,the main strength of Indian ODI middle order is still struggling and Gary has failed to improve his batting. Moreover, India is still losing important ODI matches especially the Finals. So, my question is, is there anymore need of a coach if we are not learning anything? If much needed, why not appoint a high-profile coach like Dav Whatmore who has the best coaching record and currently the director of National Cricket Academy? BCCI has to rethink before extending Guru Gary’s contract.

A Terror Called - Shaoib Akhtar

Once he was the strike bowler of Pakistan, but now seems to be forgotten by cricket world. Shoaib Akhtar is away from Pakistan squad after his knee surgery in England. Some sources say that he is making a sincere effort to come back into the team. Akhtar is also hopeful that he will be able to play once again for Pakistan. But these days this bad boy of cricket is completely out of the news.

He started his career in 1997 under Wasim Akram against the West Indian side led by Courtney Walsh. But in the last 13 years, he has played only 46 Tests,144 ODIs and 7 T20s. With at most couple of years of cricket left in him, the 35-year-old Akhtar is still eyeing a comeback and plans to perform for the country and walk into the sunset with pride and glory. But it seems difficult as now Pakistan has the likes of Mohammad Asif, Mohammad Aamer, Umar Gul, Rana Naved-Al-Hasan, Rao Iftikhar Anjum andAbdul Razzaq.

Shoaib Akhtar first burst onto the big stage in the 1999 World Cup with a long, hurtling run-up and blistering speed. His glamour status was represented by a famous nickname – the Rawalpindi Express. But sometimes his ego and blind ambition to touch the 100 Mph milestone seemed to be more important for him rather than cementing his place in the Pakistan side. In November 2006, he received a two-year ban with his bowling opening partner Mohammad Asif for using the banned substance Nandrolone and the cricketing world saw another ugly face of the marathon pacer. But he was reprieved on appeal to the International drugs agencies. Then he tried hard to retain his place, but at the same time indulged in controversies and had fitness problems due to injuries. Then he was dropped again from the squad with the excuse of discipline and is yet to get back.

I can recall that he played his last test match against India in India in 2007 in which Sourav Chandidas Ganguly scored his only double hundred. Shoaib just managed to pick up 1 wicket and sat outside most of the times of that match due to fitness problems. Many questions arose over his inclusion in that match, but he was not seen thereafter in white clothes. In April-May 2009, he was allowed to play ODIs and T20 series against Australia at Abu Dhabi and that became his last series.

Should Akhtar get one last chance to redeem himself? Should Pakistan show interest in a fast bowler who is already 35? Won’t it be a step backward as the fast bowlers can’t go at 40s in modern cricket? Rather it will be better to invest in more strapping young fast bowlers like Mohammad Aamer, who at 17 has done wonderfully well for the country and himself. Pakistan have performed splendidly in Under-19 World cup-2010 for which they became the Runners-Up. So bowlers like Fayazz Butt are available at hands for them. So, Why Shoiab Akhtar again? Who has already lost the support of his team mates? Will he get another chance in the future to play the 2011 World Cup going to be held in the sub-continent?

I don’t think so, but if Kiwi veteran fast bowler Shane Bond, who is also 35, can make a comeback, then why can’t Shoaib Akhtar? This question forces me to rethink about it.