Ajit Agarkar is a name that brings mixed emotions to the ardent follower
of Indian cricket. Here is a young fast bowler with so much of promise
in him, making one hope and wish if only he lived up to it. Agarkar had
lost a lot of goodwill over the last two years thanks to his infamous
run of ducks against Australia and a lacklustre show with the ball.
The young medium pacer from Mumbai has had the confidence and faith of a
few powerful men in Indian cricket. Sourav Ganguly and Sachin Tendulkar
have always backed Agarkar to the hilt. The patience of the public and
the selectors saw its limit after he enjoyed being a 'good tourist' in
Sri Lanka thanks to a bad viral fever and alleged sunstroke. Things
couldn't have got worse for Agarkar, the axe fell, and selectors dumped
him from the squad to tour South Africa.
Agarkar took off for Kenya with the Mumbai team, trying to regain his
lost rhythm and confidence. As luck would have it, two of the leading
pace bowlers the selectors had picked for the ODI tri-series, Zaheer
Khan and Ashish Nehra had to stay back to recover from their respective
injuries. It wasn't a toss of the coin, the selectors asked Debasis
Mohanty and Agarkar to rush to Mumbai for the fitness test. The Indian
skipper would have none other than Agarkar in the squad; Ganguly is
renowned for his nature of backing the players who fit in his plans.
Make no mistake, Agarkar knows it too well that this tour of South
Africa is going to be a do or die one for him. Eyebrows were still
raised, people were thinking aloud whether Agarkar has woken up to the
realities?
India played its first game in the tri-series against South Africa on
October 5 at the New Wanderers. Agarkar impressed the legendary South
African fast bowler Allan Donald, and in his column in CricInfo, 'White
Lightning', wrote, "The guy who could do well in South Africa, though,
is Ajit Agarkar. There's not very much of him, but he's deceptively
quick, quicker than you might think. He's a skiddy type of bowler, but
he comes onto the bat hard and he was the one guy who made Gary hurry
his shots every now and again."
So far India has played in five matches, having won a match against
South Africa and Kenya and are in a tricky situation, nothing short than
a win against the Kenyans on Wednesday will take them to the final. It
is a testimony to Agarkar's will to do well in this tour that he is on
top of the list of the Indian bowlers with eight wickets at an average
of 27.20. In the first match against the Proteas, he was the best of the
Indian bowlers, generating a lot of pace.
The second match against South Africa saw Agarkar bowl with a lot of
fire to pick 2/40 and a match winning catch to dismiss Mark Boucher. He
destroyed the Kenyans with a fiery spell to finish with 10-2-27-4 at the
Goodyear Park in Bloemfontein and won the Man of the Match award. After
being rested at Port Elizabeth in the shameful loss against Kenya,
Agarkar's return to the side against the Proteas at Buffalo Park was not
too exciting.
In South Africa though he has shown a lot of resolve and has had
success; reasons why Ajit Agarkar is our Indian Player of the fortnight.
Inside Stuff
Ajit Agarkar's World Record... [More]
Agarkar's batting blitz... [More]
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Celebrity Articles
Agarkar is good for the one-day game...says Partab Ramchand [More]
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Milestones
Breaking Kapil Dev's record... [Scorecard | Match Reports]
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