OTD| One of India’s finest bowling talents and current chief selector Ajit Agarkar was born in 1977

Former Indian cricket and current chief selector Ajit Agarkar is celebrating his 46th birthday today. He was one of the prominent faces of the Indian team in the early 2000s, being a crucial member of the team led by Sourav Ganguly. Now he is assuming an even bigger responsibility as the chief selector. 

The Beginning

The fast bowler from Mumbai made his India debut in 1998 against Australia in an ODI game at Kochi. His early days in international cricket were very successful as he impressed everyone with his potential. At the time he was the fastest to reach 50 wickets in ODI cricket.

The next year, in 1998, he made his debut in the longest format against Zimbabwe at Harare. In the later part of his career, Agarkar also represented India in the T20 format and went on to become a part of the 2007 T20 World Cup winning team in South Africa. 

The Overview

Ajit Agarkar has played 26 test matches for India where he collected 58 wickets at an average of 47.32. He could not get much success in the test format but his exploits in ODI cricket are much more impressive. He got the opportunity to represent India in 191 One-Day internationals and he picked up 288 wickets at a brilliant average of 27.85. He also bagged a couple of 5-wicket hauls in his ODI career. Agarkar had a brief T20 stint as well where he could play only 4 T20 internationals but being a part of the World Cup-winning side would be one of the highlights of his career. 

He became the chief of the selection committee in July this year. The former player will have the responsibility to steer India through this phase of transition where Indian cricket is stepping into a new era with a lot of youngsters coming into the team and leaving their mark. It will be a tough task to integrate the new faces into the squad and still be able to go the distance in the upcoming multilateral events. 

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