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- Jan 13, 2010
Article by Abhishek Sharma
Since Kapil Dev’s retirement, team India could never see a perfect all-rounder in their side. There had been some players who contributed in the batting and the bowling department, but none could be termed as a good all-rounder.
Manoj Prabhakar and Lala Amarnath are two players who except for Kapil Dev could be considered as all-rounders. Lately, players like Sachin, Sehwag, Ganguly, Yuvraj, Raina and Rohit Sharma had good experiences in the bowling department, but they just weren’t too good to be considered as batting all-rounders. Ajit Agarkar, Anil Kumble and Praveen Kumar showed some signs of batting, but their batting form lasted for just one or two series. But I feel Ajit Agarkar had it in him to become a good bowling all-rounder for India.
From the current list, the Pathan brothers seem to be some serious talent. However, I feel that Yusuf really needs to bring some new variations in his bowling to be successful as a bowler. Irfan has the perfect blend of aggressive batting and bowling to be a good all-rounder. But since the past few years, his performance hasn’t been at its best. The selecters seem to have just forgotten about him. Nobody would disagree that he surely does deserve one more opportunity to prove himself.
Another guy who is emerging as an all-rounder is Ravindra Jadeja. The positives for him are that his bowling is as good as his batting, but the negatives are that both of them are pretty weak. Although people criticize him a lot, I usually feel that he is an integral part of India’s limited overs’ playing XI. Sometimes he chips in with one or two wickets and manages to score 30 odd runs which actually turn out to be very helpful for the side.
The latest inclusion in the “can become all-rounder” category is the turbanator, Harbhajan Singh. Ofcourse there is no question on his bowling skills, but when it comes to batting, he has always been an above average batsman. Bhajji often keeps on getting some odd 30+ scores and has also managed 50+ scores on some occasions. His recent form with the bat has suddenly raised this question in each cricket lover’s mind that, “Is Harbhajan the all-rounder India was searching for?”.
In the on-going test series against New Zealand, Harbhajan’s form with the bat has been truly amazing. First a 69 during which he reached his highest individual test match score and then a hundred, again he broke the same record of his highest score in tests. Coming at number 8 and reaching the maiden test hundred with a six shows the confidence this man has. The most important thing is that his hundred came in the second innings which isn’t an easy thing to do. The much experienced batting line-up failed but then it was Harbhajan alongside Laxman who stood firm and helped India draw the test match, which was going in the favor of the underdogs, the Kiwis.
In the second test, he surprised everyone yet again. He again scored a century, and this time with a strike rate of almost 100. Just when it looked that India would manage to get just a 10-20 runs lead over New Zealand, Harbhajan guided the Indian score and gave a lead in excess of 100. The highlight of this inning were the number of sixes he hit. He struck seven sixes in his 111*, and the same number of fours.
Harbhajan Singh has been helping India to come out of crucial stages and emerge at the top. This man surely has a lot of potential with the bat also. It would rather be too quick to term Harbhajan as an all-rounder, but two successive hundreds surely put him in the contention to become the next decent all-rounder for India.
Now that Harbhajan has all the confidence he needed to go out at the centre and perform with the willow in the hand, it will interesting to see how he performs with the bat at foreign wickets, or should I say, the non sub-continental pitches.
More...
Since Kapil Dev’s retirement, team India could never see a perfect all-rounder in their side. There had been some players who contributed in the batting and the bowling department, but none could be termed as a good all-rounder.
Manoj Prabhakar and Lala Amarnath are two players who except for Kapil Dev could be considered as all-rounders. Lately, players like Sachin, Sehwag, Ganguly, Yuvraj, Raina and Rohit Sharma had good experiences in the bowling department, but they just weren’t too good to be considered as batting all-rounders. Ajit Agarkar, Anil Kumble and Praveen Kumar showed some signs of batting, but their batting form lasted for just one or two series. But I feel Ajit Agarkar had it in him to become a good bowling all-rounder for India.
From the current list, the Pathan brothers seem to be some serious talent. However, I feel that Yusuf really needs to bring some new variations in his bowling to be successful as a bowler. Irfan has the perfect blend of aggressive batting and bowling to be a good all-rounder. But since the past few years, his performance hasn’t been at its best. The selecters seem to have just forgotten about him. Nobody would disagree that he surely does deserve one more opportunity to prove himself.
Another guy who is emerging as an all-rounder is Ravindra Jadeja. The positives for him are that his bowling is as good as his batting, but the negatives are that both of them are pretty weak. Although people criticize him a lot, I usually feel that he is an integral part of India’s limited overs’ playing XI. Sometimes he chips in with one or two wickets and manages to score 30 odd runs which actually turn out to be very helpful for the side.
The latest inclusion in the “can become all-rounder” category is the turbanator, Harbhajan Singh. Ofcourse there is no question on his bowling skills, but when it comes to batting, he has always been an above average batsman. Bhajji often keeps on getting some odd 30+ scores and has also managed 50+ scores on some occasions. His recent form with the bat has suddenly raised this question in each cricket lover’s mind that, “Is Harbhajan the all-rounder India was searching for?”.
In the on-going test series against New Zealand, Harbhajan’s form with the bat has been truly amazing. First a 69 during which he reached his highest individual test match score and then a hundred, again he broke the same record of his highest score in tests. Coming at number 8 and reaching the maiden test hundred with a six shows the confidence this man has. The most important thing is that his hundred came in the second innings which isn’t an easy thing to do. The much experienced batting line-up failed but then it was Harbhajan alongside Laxman who stood firm and helped India draw the test match, which was going in the favor of the underdogs, the Kiwis.
In the second test, he surprised everyone yet again. He again scored a century, and this time with a strike rate of almost 100. Just when it looked that India would manage to get just a 10-20 runs lead over New Zealand, Harbhajan guided the Indian score and gave a lead in excess of 100. The highlight of this inning were the number of sixes he hit. He struck seven sixes in his 111*, and the same number of fours.
Harbhajan Singh has been helping India to come out of crucial stages and emerge at the top. This man surely has a lot of potential with the bat also. It would rather be too quick to term Harbhajan as an all-rounder, but two successive hundreds surely put him in the contention to become the next decent all-rounder for India.
Now that Harbhajan has all the confidence he needed to go out at the centre and perform with the willow in the hand, it will interesting to see how he performs with the bat at foreign wickets, or should I say, the non sub-continental pitches.
More...
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