| Personal information | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Ajay Kumar Sharma | |||
| Born | 3 April 1964 Delhi, India |
|||
| Batting style | Right-handed | |||
| Bowling style | Slow left-arm | |||
| Role | Batsman | |||
| Relations | M Sharma (son) | |||
| International information | ||||
| National side | India | |||
| Only Test (cap 182) | 11 January 1988 v West Indies | |||
| ODI debut (cap 64) | 2 January 1988 v West Indies | |||
| Last ODI | 16 November 1993 v West Indies | |||
| Domestic team information | ||||
| Years | Team | |||
| 1984 – 2000 | Delhi | |||
| 2000 – 2001 | Himachal Pradesh | |||
| Career statistics | ||||
| Competition | Test | ODI | FC | LA |
| Matches | 1 | 31 | 129 | 113 |
| Runs scored | 53 | 424 | 10120 | 2814 |
| Batting average | 26.50 | 20.19 | 67.46 | 36.07 |
| 100s/50s | 0/0 | 0/3 | 38/36 | 2/20 |
| Top score | 30 | 59* | 259* | 135* |
| Balls bowled | 24 | 1140 | 6438 | 3985 |
| Wickets | 0 | 15 | 87 | 108 |
| Bowling average | – | 58.33 | 31.01 | 28.37 |
| 5 wickets in innings | – | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| 10 wickets in match | – | n/a | 0 | n/a |
| Best bowling | – | 3/41 | 5/34 | 5/30 |
| Catches/stumpings | 1/– | 6/– | 94/– | 43/– |
| Source: CricketArchive, 14 December 2009 | ||||
Ajay Kumar Sharma (born April 3, 1964 in Delhi) is a retired Indian cricketer.
Sharma was a prolific run-maker in first-class cricket, mainly for Delhi, scoring over 10,000 runs at the high average of 67.46.[1] Given a minimum qualification of 50 innings, only three players (Sir Donald Bradman, Vijay Merchant and George Headley) have bettered this average in first-class cricket.[2]
In the Ranji Trophy, Sharma scored a record 31 centuries[3] and his batting average of approximately 80 in this competition is second only to Vijay Merchant.[4][5] In the 1996-97 season, he became only the third player to score over 1000 runs in a Ranji Trophy season. He played in six Ranji Trophy finals for Delhi scoring centuries in four of them, but only twice ended up on the winning side (1985-86 and 1991-92). Sharma also regularly represented North Zone in the Duleep Trophy.
Despite his domestic scoring record, Sharma only played one Test match for India - against the West Indies in January 1988.[6] He played 31 One Day Internationals for India from 1988 to 1993. In December 1988, he scored back-to-back fifties against New Zealand, but he did not reach those heights again except for a 59 not out (his highest ODI score) against Zimbabwe in March 1993.[7] He finished with 424 runs at a batting average of 20.19. Sharma also took 15 wickets using his left-arm spin with a best of 3/41 against Australia in October 1989.[8]
In 2000, aged 36, his career ended when he received a life ban from cricket after he was implicated in a match-fixing scandal.[9]
Sharma's son Manan Sharma is a left-arm spin bowler currently playing for Delhi and is part of India's Under-19 team.[10]
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