Ajit Agarkar

Full name: Ajit Bhalchandra Agarkar
Born: December 4, 1977, Bombay (now Mumbai), Maharashtra
Major teams: India, Middlesex, Mumbai

Batting style: Right-hand bat
Bowling style: Right-arm fast-medium

Test debut: Zimbabwe v India at Harare - Oct 7-10, 1998

ODI debut: India v Australia at Kochi - Apr 1, 1998

Twenty20 debut: South Africa v India at Johannesburg - Dec 1, 2006

PROFILE
Ajit Agarkar gave a speedy start to his career as he became the fastest to reach 50 wickets in One Day Internationals. But such speed was accompanied by batting slump of 7 ducks in a row against Australia. Besides them he has many records to his name. He holds the world record of being the quickest in terms taking least no. of matches in reaching the feat of 200 wickets and completeing 1000 runs in ODI. He completed this feat in 133 matches breaking the previous record held by Shaun Pollock in 138. He also holds the fastest Indian record of hiiting a ODI half-century, hitting it in just 21 balls

Agarkar was born in the Shivaji Park area of Mumbai and was raised by his grandparents. He from the starting took interest in cricket. Agarkar, at the school level, was a top order batsman who could bowl a bit. Once he was made to open the bowling attack and he performed well. So he started opening the bowling attack. When he played at the state level, he was an allrounder. At the national level, under the captainship of Md. Azharuddin he was a bowler and a lower order batsman. But by the time Azhar left, he was left as a pacer and a tailender.

Agarkar records in the one day arena has been a good one. When he is to his terms he can take quick wickets. But in other cases he can expensive. Though a lean and not so tall personality, unlike other quicks, he has the rare talent to swing the ball both ways and generate a speed of 140 kph regularly. Agarkar's run in test matches has been disappointing. Besides some good performances he has not been able to make a mark in the longer version of the game. But he too has to his name the unbeaten test century at Lords in 2002, while batting at eighth number.

Agarkar, besides being such a good bowler has been in and out of the team, sometimes due to form, in other cases due to injury. Since now he has made nine comebacks in the national team and won the match of the award in 5 of these comebacks. But he has been able to make to all the three world cups, since he made his international debut in 1998. Though he played only 3 matches in the 1999 world cup and not even a single match in 2003 world cup, he is expected to spearhead the Indian bowling attack allong with Zaheer Khan in the Cricket world cup 2007.

View Ajit Agarkar's stats at http://content-usa.cricinfo.com/ci/content/player/26184.html