Ajit Agarkar

Ajit Agarkar

Personal information
Full name	Ajit Bhalchandra Agarkar
Born	4 December 1977 (1977-12-04) Mumbai, Maharastra, India
Height	5 ft 7 in (1.70 m)
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	17 January 2006 v Pakistan
ODI debut (cap 111)	1 April 1998 v Australia
Last ODI	5 September 2007 v England
ODI shirt no.	68
T20I debut	1 December 2006 v South Africa
Last T20I	16 September 2007 v New Zealand
Domestic team information
Years	Team
1997/98–present	Mumbai
2004	Middlesex
2008–2010	Kolkata Knight Riders
2011-present	Delhi Daredevils
Career statistics
Competition	Test	ODI	FC	List A
Matches	26	191	102	261
Runs scored	571	1269	3104	2169
Batting average	16.79	14.58	28.21	17.49
100s/50s	1/0	0/3	3/15	0/8
Top score	109*	95	107*	95
Balls bowled	4857	9484	17046	12695
Wickets	58	288	282	404
Bowling average	47.32	27.85	30.67	26.40
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/–	35/–	67/–
Source: Cricinfo, 9 February 2011

Ajit Bhalchandra Agarkar (Marathi: अजित भालचंद्र आगरकर)  pronunciation (born 4 December 1977) is an Indian international cricketer, who has been on the fringes of the Indian side in both tests and one day matches since his debut in 1998. He is a fast bowling all-rounder, in the mould of Kapil Dev, who usually bats just below the wicket keeper at number 8, and often opens the bowling.

Personal life

A resident of Narayan Pujari Nagar on Worli Seaface, he was raised by his grandparents at Shivaji Park where many a great cricketer practised and went on to play for India. He is an alumnus of Ruparel College in Matunga, Mumbai. He is married to a Muslim girl, Fatima Ghadially and they have a son named Raj.

Bowling and Batting Style

He has a relatively short figure as compared to his other fast bowling counterparts. But still he could bowl at speeds more than 90MpH (~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. He is a right hand batsman .He has been a decent batsman in ODIs and tests with a highest score of 95 and 109* respectively in each format.He usually bats lower down the order but has batted top of the order in ODIs.

Career

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

Soon after his debut, a 20 year 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.

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.

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. Many believe that the selectors have not been just to him.

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

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, in another knock 95 against west indies in 2002 at jamshedpur. In the same season in 2002 he joined the group of few Indians to have scored a century at the mecca of cricket, The Lords, when he scored a century in the first test of series batting at no. 8. A century at Lords has eluded even the likes of Sachin Tendulkar and Ricky Ponting.

As a fielder he has been very good owing to his quick reflexes. In an era when Indian fielders dithered from diving around, he was an exception. But due to lack of confidence shown by the selectors in him he couldn't bloom well. Ajit Agarkar has been one of the biggest losses of Indian cricket owing to favouritism in BCCI and selectors showing preference to non-Mumbai Ranji players, especially South Zone, UP and Delhi.

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. However, Agarkar achieved the feat against prominent test teams unlike Mendis who captured most wickets (29 out of 50) against minnows like Zimbabwe and Bangladesh including 5 against UAE (non-test playing nation). 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 against Australia, an unfortunate honour.

External links

• Cricinfo Player Profile : Ajit Bhalchandra Agarkar