OTD| Former Indian cricketer Vinod Kambli was born in 1972

Vinod Kambli, the former India batter was born on 18 January 1972 in Bombay, Maharashtra, India. The stylish left-handed batter could have gone beyond Sachin Tendulkar as per the experts, but he faded away in the limelight. Kambli being a Mumbai born player came into the light in the year 1988, when he set a world record 664-run partnership with Tendulkar during the semi-final of the Harris Shield tournament, an inter-school competition, playing for Shardashram Vidyamandir School against St. Xavier’s High School. 

The batter was also the prodigy that came from the famous Shivaji Park coach Ramakant Achrekar, the one who moulded Sachin into a beast at an early young age of 16. The 52-year-old batter made his ODI debut in 1991, against Pakistan at Sharjah. He was also a part of the 1992 World Cup team. Kambli scored a fighting century in his first ODI against England in 1993. In the very same year, he made his Test debut as well, against England, where he scored his first double century in only his second Test match. He followed it up with another double-hundred against Zimbabwe in the next match, before striking a hundred against Sri Lanka to become the first cricketer to reach 100+ in three innings against three different opponents. 

A prodigy that never become star

Although he had a promising start to his Test career, Kambli considered Tests after 1995, leaving him with only 17 Tests to his career as he also had the highest career batting average for an Indian test cricketer of 54. In 1993 and 1994, he played knick of 50 runs or higher for more than 10 times. He scored a key knock against Zimbabwe in the 1996 World Cup, rescuing India from a troubling stage. He went on to produce an aggressive century, his second and last in ODIs, and helped India to a respectable total. 

Then his form went down a little bit and he was dropped from the side at a very young age after the 1996 Cricket World Cup semi-final massacre against Sri Lanka at the Eden Gardens, he was called a traitor and alleged for match-fixing as well. After those incidents he was never back in the side and retired in the year 2011.