Former Indian fast bowler Ajit Agarkar turns 39

Former Indian cricketer Ajit Agarkar shall be celebrating his 39th Birthday on Sunday.

Ajit Agarkar was born on 4th December 1977 in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India.

Ajit Agarkar has been one of the many cricketing stalwarts Mumbai cricket has produced who have gone onto play for the country with distinction. Agarkar was also coached by Ramakant Achrekar, the great coach in Mumbai whose list of proteges includes the likes of Pravin Amre, Sachin Tendulkar and Vinod Kambli.

Agarkar, the bowler - India's wicket-taking strike weapon

Ajit Agarkar burst onto the international cricket by becoming the quickest Indian bowler to reach the 50 wicket in ODI cricket. He got to the landmark in just 23 games. Agarkar was a strike bowler who had a knack of picking up wicket regularly.

He more often than not provided the Indian side with early breakthroughs. Although he drew flak from all quarters for being a little erratic in his line and length, he had that uncanny knack of bowling the wicket taking delivery.

The wiry Mumbai seamer was deceptively quick as he generated brisk pace with his quick arm action. Agarkar deliveries skitted off the surface and hurried onto the batsmen.

He had a surprise bouncer and could reverse swing the ball too. Ajit became an integral part of the Indian seam attack in the first decade of the new millennium. Earlier in his career, he shared the new ball with seamers like Javagal Srinath and Venkatesh Prasad and later on formed pace attack with the likes of Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra and Irfan Pathan.

Agarkar has the distinction of being the fastest Indian to 50, 150, 200 and 250 ODI wickets. 

Agarkar, the batsman - Handy lower order batsman who made valuable contributions

Agarkar was a handy customer with the bat too. He often chipped in with quick fire runs lower down the order. He was capable of hitting lusty blows Agarkar holds the record of the fastest half century by an Indian in ODI’s. He scored a 21 ball 50 against Zimbabwe in an ODI at Rajkot in 2000. Agarkar was a good fielder in the deep with strong throwing arm.

Test Career

Agarkar could never establish himself as a in the Indian Test side as his bowling was plagued by inconsistencies in the longer format. He however won a couple of matches for India.

He would be remembered for an explosive spell of pace bowling at Adelaide Oval in 2003 where he dented the Australian bowling line-up by picking up career best 6 for 41.

Agarkar also has the unique distinction of scoring a century at Lords against  England in 2002. Agarkar set a record of seven consecutive innings resulting in ducks against the Australians (four of them first ball), which earned him the nickname "Bombay Duck".

He was part of Indian world cup winning squad that won the 2007 T-20 World Cup besides being member of the 1999, 2003 and 2007 World Cup squads. 

Agarkar would surely go down as one of the finest exponents of seam bowling in the limited overs arena.

He had a spectacular bowling record in ODI’s and his 288 ODI scalps is testimony to the same. Agarkar was an integral part of the Mumbai Ranji side and won multiple titles with his state side. He captained them to their 40th Ranji title in 2013 after Mumbai beat Karnataka in the finals.

Ajit Agarkar International Career Stats

One Day International 

Matches  Wickets      Avg        Econ      SR 

191          288          27.85      5.07    32.9

Test Matches

Matches   Wickets    Econ   SR 

26             58        3.39    83.7

Batting

Matches     Runs      Avg              SR  

191             1269     14.58        80.62        

Matches      Runs      Avg              50 

26               571      16.79          3