Ajit Agarkar

Ajit Agarkar
Personal information
Full name Ajit Bhalchandra Agarkar
Born 4 December 1977
Bombay, Maharashtra, India
Batting style Right-handed
Bowling style Right-arm fast-medium
Role All-rounder
International information
National side
  • India
Test debut (cap 216) 7 October 1998 v Zimbabwe
Last Test 13 January 2006 v Pakistan
ODI debut (cap 111) 1 April 1998 v Australia
Last ODI 5 September 2007 v England
T20I debut (cap 1) 1 December 2006 v South Africa
Last T20I 16 September 2007 v New Zealand
Domestic team information
YearsTeam
1996–present Mumbai
2008–2010 Kolkata Knight Riders
2011-present Delhi Daredevils
Career statistics
Competition Test ODI FC LA
Matches 26 191 103 267
Runs scored 571 1269 3117 2252
Batting average 16.79 14.58 28.08 17.73
100s/50s 1/0 0/3 3/15 0/8
Top score 109* 95 109* 95
Balls bowled 4857 9484 17232 13146
Wickets 58 288 282 412
Bowling average 47.32 27.85 31.03 26.44
5 wickets in innings 1 2 12 3
10 wickets in match 0 n/a 0 n/a
Best bowling 6/41 6/42 6/41 6/18
Catches/stumpings 6/– 52/– 36/– 69/–
Source: Cricinfo, 28 June 2012

Ajit Bhalchandra Agarkar  pronunciation  (born 4 December 1977) is a former Indian international cricketer, who had represented India in more than 200 international matches. He played for the Delhi Daredevils and the Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL and captained Mumbai to its 40th Ranji Trophy title in 2013. He made his Test and ODI debuts in 1998 and T20I debut in 2006. He is the third highest wicket-taker for India in ODIs and has represented India in the 1999 Cricket World Cup, 2003 Cricket World Cup where India reached into the finals but Ajit Agarkar didn't feature in any of the world cup matches in the 2007 Cricket World Cup and the 2007 ICC World Twenty20.

Personal life

Born in a Chitpavan Brahmin family, he was raised by his grandparents at Shivaji Park where many a great cricketer have practised and went on to play for India. He went Shardashram Vidyamandir school and was later coached by Ramakant Achrekar. He is an alumnus of Ruparel College in Matunga. He married Fatima Ghadially, a Muslim Shia girl from Mumbai. They have a son named Raj. He lives with his family at Narayan Pujari Nagar on Worli Seaface in South Mumbai[1]

Bowling style

He has a relatively short figure as compared to his other fast bowling counterparts. But he could still bowl at speeds more than 90 mph (~145 km/hr) owing to his athletic body and a good run up speed. He has had a knack to bowl the reverse swing deliveries when the ball gets old.

Career

Agarkar made his ODI debut against Australia at Kochi, on 1 April 1998. He took the wicket of Adam Gilchrist in that match.

Soon after his debut, a 20-year old Agarkar achieved his first Man of the match award in a crucial Coca cola champions trophy match against Sri Lanka taking three crucial wickets folding Sri Lanka for just 98.[2]

Amongst Agarkar's better performances were his performances in Australia in the Test series of 1999, and also in the test series in 2003. At Adelaide Oval in 2003, Agarkar took 6/41, to help India to win their first test in Australia in over 20 years. Agarkar has performed better in ODI cricket, where he takes wickets regularly, although his economy rate is high.He has also had a number of good batting performances. He was the best Indian bowler in the one day series during India's tour of West Indies in 2006.

As a batsman, Agarkar is one of the few players who scored a Test century at Lords against England during India's tour to England in 2002 when he scored 109 not out. Although India lost the test, his batting skills were quite noticeable. He also holds the record of the fastest fifty in ODI's for India when he scored 67 not out in 25 balls at Rajkot against Zimbabwe in 2000.[3] However,his batting exploits have been frequently overshadowed by seven consecutive instances of no scoring against Australia, five in Australia and two at home.[4] His first four dismissal also happened to have been on the first ball he faced.

He is currently the 3rd highest wicket taker (288) for India in ODI's after Javagal Srinath (315) and Anil Kumble (337). One of the his notable performances in the domestic cricket came in the 2009-10 Ranji trophy finals against Karnataka in which he took 5 wickets in the second innings ensuring a narrow win for Mumbai.

Agarkar represented Kolkata Knight Riders in Indian Premier League for three seasons. In the fourth season, he was contracted by Delhi Daredevils for US$210,000.

In February 2012 it was announced that Agarkar would captain Mumbai in the 2012 Vijay Hazare Trophy.[5]

He was also the captain of the Mumbai that won the 2013 Ranji Trophy. Though his performance was rather lacklustre in the initial parts of the 2013 Ranji Trophy, yet towards the end of the tournament he showed his class. In the quarter final, he scored 52* (from 53 balls) against Baroda to ensure a mammoth total of 645/9 declared. In the semi final against Services, he scored 145 and gave a 246-run 7th wicket partnership with wicket keeper Aditya Tare (120) to rescue Mumbai from 169/6, and take the total to 454/8 declared.

On 16th Oct 2013, Ajit Agarkar announced his retirement from all forms of cricket just before the start of the 2013-14 Ranji season.[6]

As an all-rounder

He was touted by many as being India's next great fast bowling all-rounder, like Kapil Dev, however his performances have never been consistent enough.

In ODIs there was a time when John Wright used to send him as a pinch hitter in ODIs up the order to increase the scoring rate. He demonstrated good batting skills with no slogging . Some of his acclaimed knocks in ODIs are when he smacked the fastest 50 by an Indian off 21 balls in 2000 against Zimbabwe and took 3 wickets as well in that match,[7] in another knock 95 against West Indies in 2002 at Jamshedpur when he was sent up the order at number 3.[8] In the same season in 2002 he joined the group of few Indians to have scored a century at the Mecca of Cricket, Lord's, when he scored a century in the first test of series batting at no. 8.[9] A century at Lords has eluded even the likes of Sachin Tendulkar and Ricky Ponting.

He got a runner up medal in 2003 world cup which was a surprised achievement for him.

Records

Early in his career, Agarkar broke Dennis Lillee's world record for the fastest 50 wickets in ODIs, achieving the feat from only 23 matches. He held the record from 1998 until 2009, when Ajantha Mendis achieved the feat from just 19 matches. Agarkar holds the Indian record of scoring the fastest 50 in ODI: he scored 50 of 21 balls. Agarkar also holds another ODI record, which is the quickest in terms of least number of matches played to take 200 wickets and complete 1000 runs. Agarkar achieved this feat in 133 matches breaking the previous record held by South African Shaun Pollock, who accomplished this feat in his 138th match.

He scored an unbeaten Test century at Lord's in 2002, batting at number eight.

Conversely, Agarkar attained the feat of seven consecutive innings resulting in ducks (four of them first ball) against Australia, an unfortunate honour.[10][11] The wicket takers were Damien Fleming, Brett Lee, Mark Waugh, Brett Lee and Glenn McGrath.

References

  1. ↑ http://www.lookuppage.com/users/ajitagarkar/
  2. ↑ vivek, gupta. "Ajit's first MoM-Vivek Gupta". ESPN-Cricinfo. Retrieved 9 November 2011.
  3. ↑ Fastest fifties at Cricinfo
  4. ↑ http://www.alloutcricket.com/blogs/sundries/you-can-quote-me-on-that-ajit-agarkar
  5. ↑ "Ajit Agarkar to lead Mumbai in one-dayer". The Times of India. 15 February 2012. Retrieved 15 February 2012.
  6. ↑ "Agarkar retires from all cricket". ESPN Cricinfo. Retrieved 16 October 2013.
  7. ↑ "fastest 50".
  8. ↑ "Ajit 95".
  9. ↑ "109* agarkar".
  10. ↑ http://www.espncricinfo.com/india/content/player/26184.html
  11. ↑ Frindall, Bill (2009). Ask Bearders. BBC Books. pp. 80–81. ISBN 978-1-84607-880-4.

External links