Dasun Shanaka (Photo Source: Twitter)
The game of cricket has seen numerous great players who have enriched the ambience of the beautiful sport. From Don Bradman to Sachin Tendulkar, Ricky Ponting to MS Dhoni, Curtly Ambrose to Shane Warne, all have engraved their names in history in various facets of the game and are well-known for their deeds.
However, with many cricketers making massive name for themselves and being regarded well among the masses, there have been numerous players who get muddled in between and end up as underrated. Despite their fine performances, be it in the domestic or international circuit, these cricketers have been unable to receive due recognition for their brilliance.
They are like tinge of salt in cooked food which gives the required flavour, but is often overlooked. However, they have diligently carried out their work with zeal and have managed to amass cult-followers.
5 Most Underrated international cricketers of all-time
5. Albie Morkel
When talking about modern South African greats, we generally discount Albie Morkel from the collective of players such as AB de Villiers, Dale Steyn, Jacques Kallis etc. Morkel, however, was always a clean striker of the ball whose hard-hitting abilities came to the forefront on many occasions. Who could forget his impeccable cameo against RCB in IPL 2012, where he smashed Virat Kohli for 28 runs, to pull off a dramatic victory. In addition to this, he was also instrumental with the ball and could hand major breakthroughs to keep his team in the game.
His limited-overs prowess made him one of the most reliable names in the lower-order. The swashbuckling batter would come down the order and turn the game upside down with his blistering knocks, thus shaping himself into a profitable T20 mercenary. His exploits were also on display in the Indian Premier League (IPL) wherein he helped Chennai Super Kings win back-to-back titles in 2010 and 2011. He also steered Titans to a hat-trick of CSA T20 Challenge titles from 2015-16 to 2017-18.
However, his dominance in franchise cricket failed to translate to the international level as he often struggled to find a spot in the Proteas squad. During his stint with South Africa, he featured in just one Test, 58 ODIs and 50 T20Is and aggregated 58, 782 and 572 runs respectively. Apart from that, he also scalped 50 wickets in ODIs, 26 in T20Is and a maiden wicket in the longest format.
4. Ajit Agarkar
Ever since Agarkar made his debut in international cricket in 1998, it was quite tricky for the pacer to cement his spot in the squad. Players such as Anil Kumble, Zaheer Khan, Irfan Pathan, and Venkatesh Prasad among others were highly impressive during their stint with the national team and were widely appreciated by the masses. They were also the first-choice bowlers for most of India’s matches and Agarkar had to break through the crowd to find a place for himself.
The aforementioned players’ outstanding bowling exploits meant that Agarkar’s claim to fame was largely confined to the sidelines. Despite this, Agarkar saw some success with the national team and produced many praiseworthy performances.
During 2005-06, he remained a force to be reckoned with as he rose to become on of India’s most effective bowler in the ODIs. His 6/42 at Melbourne against Australia in 2004 is still the best ODI figure by an Indian bowler on a losing cause. He also holds the record for the third fastest to 50 wickets as he attained the impressive milestone in just 23 games. He added 288 wickets to his name in 188 innings of the 50-over format, while picking up 58 and 3 wickets in 26 Tests and four T20Is, respectively.
3. Dasun Shanaka
Sri Lanka, under the likes of Kumar Sangakkara, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Muttiah Muralitharan, Sanath Jayasuriya, Mahela Jayawardena and Lasith Malinga, used to dominate world cricket at one point of time. However, eversince these legends called time on their careers, the Lankan Lions have entered a phase of transition and have failed to replicate the kind of impact they earlier relished.
Led by Dasun Shanaka presently, the side is slowly rebuilding on the glorious past, earmarked by their recent Asia Cup win. Despite being through a rough patch, the skipper has flourished into becoming one of the finest cricketers in recent times.
His aggressive batting exploits have not yet garnered much attention but he undoubtedly posesses terrific all-round skills to trouble any opposition on his day. He recently took the Indian team by storm with his brilliant knocks, albeit on losing causes in the ODI and T20I series which took place in January 2023.
A genuine match-winner with both bat and ball, Shanaka has so far aggregated 1,067 runs from 48 ODIs and 1,328 runs from 85 T20Is played for Sri Lanka. He has only scored 140 runs across the 6 test matches he has played so far. With the ball, he has 13, 15 and 23 wickets in Tests, ODIs and T20Is, respectively. Surprisingly, he was snubbed in the IPL auction and was not picked by any side for the forthcoming season. It remains to be seen if Shanaka can continue performing consistently for the national side and bring back the glory days for Sri Lanka.
2. Kraigg Brathwaite
Awarded a contract by the West Indies Cricket Board in 2011, Brathwaite became the eighth youngest player at the age of 21 years and 278 days to score a Test double century (212 runs), which came against Bangladesh in 2014. The right-handed batter from Barbados has established himself as a patient cricketer in the longest format who can carve out long innings for the side.
In December 2022, he registered scores of 64 and 110 runs against the dominant Aussies in the first Test. He continued his fine form against Zimbabwe where he aggregated 182 runs in the first test played in February, 2023. In the very same contest, Brathwaite stitched a record partnership of 336 runs with Tagenarine Chanderpaul for the 1st wicket, which broke into the record books as the 9th highest opening stand in the history of Test cricket.
Laced with an aggregate of 12,844 runs in first-class cricket, Brathwaite has so far amassed 5,303 runs in 83 Tests. While he has surely become a well-known name in the Carribean circuit, he is yet to get the world grooving to his tunes and earn global recognition for his exploits.
1. Damien Martyn
Similar to India, Australia have honed plenty of talent but many of them have failed to get noticed for their impressive performances and earn the ‘legendary’ status. It is said that the strength of a team can be determined by how good the players on the bench are. Such was the scenario during the ‘golden age’ of Australian cricket during the late 90’s and early 2000’s, led by Steve Waugh and Ricky Ponting.
While the ‘kangaroos’ were dominating with the likes of Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath, Bradd Hogg, Adam Gilchrist and Andrew Symonds among the ranks, there were others such as Damien Martyn who were silently contributing to the team’s growing dominance, without ever escalating to a pedestal as high as that occupied by the aforementioned cricketers.
The right-handed middle-order blossomed into a feathery artist who played elegant cricketing shots which left many players on the field awestruck. Despite having a shaky start to his early, Martyn rose to glory when he scored his maiden Test century in the first Ashes test at Edgbaston in 2001.
His stint with the national team saw him aggregate 4406 runs in 67 Tests and 5346 runs in 208 ODIs, with a career best knock of an unbeaten 144 runs.