Ajit Agarkar

Ajit Bhalchandra Agarkar pronunciation  (born 4 December 1977) is a former Indian cricketer. He has represented India in more than 200 international matches in all three formats of the game.[1] He is the third highest wicket-taker for India in One Day Internationals (ODIs) and has represented India in the 1999 Cricket World Cup and the 2007 World Cup.

Ajit Agarkar

Personal information
Full name	Ajit Bhalchandra Agarkar
Born	(1977-12-04) 4 December 1977 Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
Batting	Right-handed
Bowling	Right-arm fast-medium
Role	All rounder
International information
National side	India (1998–2007)
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	30 August 2007 v England
ODI shirt no.	9
T20I debut (cap 1)	1 December 2006 v South Africa
Last T20I	16 September 2007 v New Zealand
Domestic team information
Years	Team
1996–2013	Mumbai
2008–2010	Kolkata Knight Riders
2011–2013	Delhi Daredevils
Career statistics
Competition Test ODI FC LA Matches 26 191 103 267 Runs scored 571 1,269 3,117 2,252 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 4,857 9,484 18,132 13,322 Wickets 58 288 315 412 Bowling average 47.32 27.85 31.03 26.44 5 wickets in innings 1 2 12 3 10 wickets in match 0 0 0 0 Best bowling 6/41 6/42 6/41 6/18 Catches/stumpings 68/– 52/– 36/– 69/–
Source: Cricinfo, 28 June 2012

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. In 2013, Agarkar announced his retirement from all forms of cricket. Post-retirement, Agarkar began a new career as a cricket analyst. Agarkar is the one of the India's best bowling all-rounders in International Cricket. He still holds the record for the quickest 50 in ODIs by an Indian batsman coming off just 21 balls.

Personal life

Agarkar was born on 4 December 1977 in Bombay,[1] to Meena and Balachandra Agarkar. He has one sister, Manik Agarkar.[2][3] Agarkar started out as a batsman as a child before he was entrusted to cricket coach Ramakant Achrekar by his father. On Achrekar's insistence, Agarkar shifted his school from IES to Shardashram Vidyamandir for Class six. He developed as a batsman who could bowl a bit during this time while practicing at the Shivaji Park. He went on to perform consistently as a batsman scoring heavily in the inter-school Giles Shield tournament for the Under-16s making a triple century when he was 15. He carried the form into the Harris Shield under-19 tournament scoring consistently "showing signs of being another Tendulkar in the making." It was during this time that he began shifting focus to his bowling after it was "pointed out to [him] that it would be hard to make it into the Bombay team as a pure bowler, and that he stood a better chance as an all-rounder". As a child, Agarkar idolized pacers Kapil Dev, Michael Holding and Ian Botham; later also taking a liking to Allan Donald.[2]

Agarkar is an alumnus of Ruparel College in Matunga. He married Fatima Ghadially and has a son named Raj with her. He resides in Narayan Pujari Nagar on the Worli Seaface in South Mumbai in Maharashtra.[4]

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 (~142–150 km/hr) owing to his athletic body and a good run up speed. He has had a knack to bowl conventional swing at the start of the innings and reverse swing deliveries late in the game.

He was generally a wicket taking bowler being the fastest (at the time) to 50 wickets. However, he was fairly expensive, with high economy rates.

International 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 New Zealand taking four crucial wickets while India was defending just 220 on 17 April 1998.

The positive start to his early career, Indian fans were hopeful of him forming a strong bowling partnership with Javagal Srinath. Srinath had been sidelined by injury during Agarkar's 1st season and was the only successful pace bowler in the National Team. The emergence of Ashish Nehra in 1999 and Zaheer Khan in 2000 created further competition for pace bowling options especially in home conditions. Frequent injuries to Srinath, Nehra, and Agarkar meant India struggled with pace bowling resources.

While Agarkar remained a part of the team, he wasn't able to hold down a guaranteed place due to frequent injuries and severe competition for places especially after the emergence of Irfan Pathan in 2004. He was an important part of the hugely successful Indian team in 2002 and 2003 with Agarkar contributing some memorable performances with the bat and the ball. During this period, he was also a member of the Indian team which finished in the runner-up spot in the 2003 World Cup in South Africa.

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.[5] However, his batting exploits have been frequently overshadowed by seven consecutive instances of no scoring against Australia, five in Australia and two at home.[6] 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 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.

On 16 October 2013, Agarkar announced his retirement from all forms of cricket just before the start of the 2013–14 Ranji season.[7][8]

As an all-rounder

John Wright used to send Agarkar as a pinch hitter in ODIs up the order to increase the scoring rate. He demonstrated good batting skills with extra slogging. Some of his acclaimed knocks in ODIs are when he smacked the fastest 50 in 21 balls in 2000 against Zimbabwe and took 3 wickets as well in that match,[9] in another knock 95 against West Indies in 2002 at Jamshedpur when he was sent up the order at number 3.[10] In the same season in 2002 he joined the group of few Indians to have scored a century at Lord's, when he scored a century in the first test of series batting at no. 8.[11] He got a runner-up medal in 2003 World Cup.

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 off 21 balls. Agarkar also holds another ODI record, which is the quickest in terms of fewest 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.

During India's 1999-2000 tour of Australia, Agarkar set a record of seven consecutive innings resulting in ducks (four of them first ball), which earned him the nickname "Bombay Duck".[8][12] The wicket takers were Damien Fleming, Brett Lee, Mark Waugh, Brett Lee and Glenn McGrath.

Domestic career

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.[13]

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, he showed his class towards the end of the tournament. 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 made a 246-run 7th wicket partnership with wicketkeeper Aditya Tare (120) to rescue Mumbai from 169/6, and take the total to 454/8 declared.

References

1. "Indian player profiles". sportstarlive.com. December 2003. Retrieved 27 July 2018.
2. Panicker, Prem (10 July 1998). "Strike force!". Rediff.com. Retrieved 27 July 2018.
3. Hari Menon (8 November 2004), "Bones Of A Riddle", Outlook India. Retrieved 20 March 2019.
4. "Ajit Agarkar - Bio Page". lookuppage.com. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 19 April 2013.
5. Fastest fifties at Cricinfo
6. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 15 December 2013. Retrieved 11 December 2013.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
7. "Agarkar retires from all cricket". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 16 October 2013.
8. "Adelaide hero, Lord's centurion, Bombay duck Ajit Agarkar calls it quits". The Indian Express. 17 October 2013.
9. "fastest 50".
10. "Ajit 95".
11. "109* agarkar".
12. Frindall, Bill (2009). Ask Bearders. BBC Books. pp. 80–81. ISBN 978-1-84607-880-4.
13. "Ajit Agarkar to lead Mumbai in one-dayer". The Times of India. 15 February 2012. Retrieved 15 February 2012.

External links

• Ajit Agarkar at ESPNcricinfo