highlights
In the first Test for India, the opposing team lost sleep by becoming the nightwatchman
He was included in the Indian team as the successor of Maninder Singh.
New Delhi. Indian cricket was ruled by the spin trio of Bishan Singh Bedi, Erapalli Prasanna and BS Chandrasekhar for several decades. Then in the early 90s, India got another spin trio. It also included Anil Kumble, a lanky bowler along with Rajesh Chauhan, who came into the Indian team as Maninder Singh’s successor. By now you must have understood the name of this spinner. This spin bowler was none other than Venkatapathy Raju. Raju’s full name is Sagi Lakshmi Venkatapathy Raju.
Venkatapathy Raju played 11 years of Test cricket for India and 6 years of ODIs. The left-arm finger spinner made his debut against New Zealand in the 1990 Christchurch Test. But, by the end of the 90s, his career graph started falling and the historic Kolkata Test against Australia in March 2001 proved to be his last international match. Harbhajan Singh took a hat-trick in this test.
Raju became nightwatchman in debut test
Venkatapathy Raju was a bowler and in his entire career, except for the debut, he rarely batted like that, which made headlines. Raju made his debut in the Christchurch Test in 1990 against New Zealand. In this match, New Zealand scored 459 runs while batting first. It was India’s turn to bat. Venkatapati Raju was sent to bat at number four as night watchman after India fell for 3 wickets at 88 runs. Raju stayed on the pitch for more than 2 hours. All the players got out one by one in front of him. India’s last wicket fell in the form of Raju. He scored 31 runs. India’s first innings ended on 164. Raju scored more runs than Kapil Dev (4), Sachin Tendulkar (0). However, this test was won by New Zealand. South African all-rounder Brian McMillan had named Raju as “Muscles”.
Venkatapathy Raju’s performance on Indian pitches was excellent. He took 75 wickets in 15 Tests played at home and 22 wickets in 12 Tests played abroad. After taking 20 wickets in the home Test series against the West Indies in 1994–95, Raju’s performance declined and after the Australia series in 1997–98, he was out of Team India on one side. However, his performance in first class cricket was good. Hyderabad played Ranji Trophy final in 1999-2000. Then Raju took 52 wickets.
Dhoni was chosen as the captain in 2007
This left-arm spinner retired from first class cricket in 2004. He became the selector of the Indian team in 2007. Raju was part of the selection committee that selected Mahendra Singh Dhoni as the captain for the T20 World Cup.
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Tags: cricket news, Muhammad azharuddin, team india
FIRST PUBLISHED : March 16, 2023, 19:10 IST