All best for the Kochi IPL Team.
I personally Like to call them Demolition Men Kochi
Profile
For three seasons, Sreesanth was hardly anything more than an answer to a trivia question - who is the only Kerala bowler to have taken a Ranji Trophy hat-trick ? His rise, though, was rapid, and since he played for a weak side, unnoticed. Not too many bowlers get selected for the Duleep Trophy in their first season, like Sreesanth did in 2002-03 after snapping up 22 wickets in his first seven games. His progress was halted owing to a hamstring injury in the following year, but he returned stronger, with a more side-on action and increased pace, and a superb display in the Challenger Trophy, in 2005, propelled him to the national squad for the Sri Lanka series. In the last game of his impressive debut season, he snapped up 6 for 55 against England. Idiosyncratic, with an aggressive approach - to the stumps and the game - he can be expensive in one-dayers, but is also a wicket-taking bowler. He does it in Tests, too - in Antigua in June 2006 he fired out Ramnaresh Sarwan and Brian Lara (for 0) in successive overs, and then took five wickets in Jamaica and played a key role in bowling India to a historic triumph. The year was one of several highlights, including a haul of eight wickets against South Africa in Johannesburg, which helped India win their first Test in the country. However, things turned sour two years later in the inaugural IPL, when he was involved in a spat with Harbhajan Singh, who slapped him at the end of a match. Sreesanth signed with Warwickshire and enjoyed a satisfactory first season, but injuries and a steady decline in form kept him out of the national team. His problems with discipline are well documented; he was warned by the BCCI with suspension from domestic cricket if he violated the code of conduct. But his ability with the ball earned him a recall for the home Tests against Sri Lanka in November 2009. Via
At his sublime best, VVS Laxman is a sight for the gods. Wristy, willowy and sinuous, he can match - sometimes even better - Tendulkar for strokeplay. His on-side game is comparable to his idol Azharuddin's, yet he is decidedly more assured on the off side and has the rare gift of being able to hit the same ball to either side. The Australians, who have suffered more than most, paid the highest compliment after India's 2003-04 tour Down Under by admitting they did not know where to bowl to him. Laxman, a one-time medical student, finally showed signs of coming to terms with his considerable gifts in March 2001, as he tormented Steve Waugh's thought-to-be-invincible Australians with a majestic 281 to stand the Kolkata Test on its head. But even though he had another wonderful series against the Australians in 2003-04 with two centuries, one of them involving a back-from-the-dead, match-winning, 300-plus partnership with Kolkata ally Rahul Dravid at Adelaide, he hasn't quite managed the consistency that could have turned him into a batting great. Between dazzling and sometimes workmanlike hundreds, he has suffered the frustration of numerous twenties and thirties and has lost his place in the one-day side. Nothing, though, has deterred him from tormenting his favourite opponents with silken strokes and piles of runs: in the course of the double-hundred at Feroz Shah Kotla in 2008, he became the second Indian batsman after Tendulkar to score more than 2000 runs against the Australians. A couple of years later, batting with a runner due to back spasms, he conjured up a magical unbeaten 73 in a thrilling run-chase in Mohali. Via
Rudra Pratap Singh first made the headlines in the Under-19 World Cup in Bangladesh in 2004, taking eight wickets at 24.75 apiece and bowling well in the slog overs at the end of the innings. Later that year he joined the conveyor belt of Indian left-arm seamers, taking 34 wickets in six Ranji Trophy games for Uttar Pradesh, the joint-highest for the summer. He made the national one-day squad at the end of 2005, and took two wickets in his second over of international cricket, against Zimbabwe at Harare in September. He took four wickets (and the match award) against Sri Lanka in his third game, and three more in his fourth, before a run of four wicketless matches cost him his place after the first match of the West Indies tour in May 2006. He also won a couple of Test caps, winning the match award on his debut for some persistent bowling on a shirtfront at Faisalabad, where Pakistan ran up 588. He drifted out of contention after that, but he is still young, and well respected in the Indian set-up, as Virender Sehwag confirmed: "RP is a very talented bowler - his specialty is that he can bring the ball into the right-handers and swing it both ways." He was recalled for the tours of Bangladesh and England in 2007. It was the start of his most prolific season, which included a five-wicket haul at Lord's, crucial strikes in the victorious ICC World Twenty20 and a four-wicket haul in Perth which shut Australia out of the match. However, his bowling lacked bite after the tour of Australia and went wicket-less in the home Tests against South Africa. Via
Small even for his tender age, when Parthiv Patel led his side onto the stage during the Wisden Indian Cricketer of the Century Awards in London in July 2002, some people assumed he was the team mascot. But within a month he had instead become Test cricket's youngest wicketkeeper - at 17 years, 153 days - when called up to replace the injured Ajay Ratra for the second Test at Trent Bridge. And he didn't do too badly either, scoring a gutsy, unbeaten 19 which helped stave off an Indian defeat. Parthivl's glovework has varied from the competent to the shoddy - he was splendid in the home series against West Indies in 2002-03, but then struggled to inspire confidence thereafter, especially when standing up to the spinners. His ability with the bat ensured that he got an extended run - he scored an aggressive 62 at Sydney in 2003-04, and then faced up to Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Sami with plenty of poise, scoring 69 as an opener. However, those batting performances weren't enough to gloss over increasingly sloppy work behind the stumps, and the selectors' patience finally ran out after the third Test of the home series against Australia, when he was replaced by Dinesh Karthik. Parthiv's form took a turn for the better in 2007, on a twin tour of Zimbabwe and Harare for India A, where he hit three hundreds and a half-century. In the first match of a series against South Africa A at home Parthiv opened up with a fourth century on the trot. via
An allrounder who bats left-hand and bowls orthodox spin, Ravindra Jadeja has been playing cricket since the age of ten. He scored 53 for West Zone on his first-class debut in the 2006-07 Duleep Trophy and has been an important member of the Under-19 set-up. He was part of the U-19 team that lost the final of the World Cup in 2006 to Pakistan but bowled a crucial spell of 2 for 25 to bowl India to victory in the final of the 2008 tournament in Malaysia. Jadeja was part of the Rajasthan Royals, the inaugural IPL champions. He caught the attention of the national selectors with his strong all-round showing in the 2008-09 Ranji Trophy - 42 wickets and 739 runs - and was promptly picked for the ODI series in Sri Lanka. Via
A stocky offspinner who is more than handy with the bat, Ramesh Powar has been a consistent performer in domestic cricket for the last four seasons, and was crucial to Mumbai's Ranji Trophy success in the 2002-03 season. His 20 wickets with his flighted stuff was useful enough, but even more crucial was the runs he contributed. He never batted higher than No. 7 - sometimes going in as low as No. 10 - but ended up with the second-highest aggregate for Mumbai in the tournament, scoring 418 runs at more than 46, with most of those runs coming when his team was in strife. His domestic exploits soon caught the selectors' notice, and he made to the Indian squad for the tour to Pakistan. Both his offspin and his batting stood the test in the couple of one-day internationals he played, but even more impressive was his combative attitude, as he bravely tossed the ball up on batting shirtfronts, and didn't bat an eyelid while striking some lusty blows against the pace of Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Sami. An ideal bits-and-pieces player, Powar returned to the one-day side early in 2006, now armed with a new delivery - a drifter - which helped him to 63 domestic wickets in 2005-06, after 54 the previous season. Again he impressed with both bat and ball, although some critics made disparaging remarks about his waistline, causing him to tempt fate: "I've never missed a game owing to fitness problems." Almost inevitably, he then twisted an ankle and missed the first two ODIs in the West Indies in June 2006. Via
Vinay Kumar is a bowler in the Venkatesh Prasad mould - relying more on outswingers, legcutters and accuracy, than on outright pace. After the retirement of former India players Dodda Ganesh and David Johnson, Vinay became a key member of the Karnataka pace attack. First picked for the Ranji side in 2004-05, he quickly established himself by taking more than 20 wickets in each of his first three seasons. He soon developed an inswinger as a variation to his stock ball, resulting in a superb 2007-08 season, in which he was the second-highest wicket-taker in the Ranji Trophy. That convinced the Royal Challengers Bangalore to give him a contract, and he has frequently filled their fifth bowler's slot. Via
Mahela Jayawardene - Possibly the Captain of Kochi IPL Team
A prolific, elegant and utterly classy batsman with a huge appetite for runs, and a calm yet authoritative captain - those are the qualities that best describe Mahela Jayawardene. His sheer quality as a batsman was never in doubt even when he just entered the international scene, but for Jayawardene the biggest challenge has been to justify all the early hype. With a combined Test and ODI tally in excess of 17,000 - and a captaincy stint that included a World Cup final appearance - it can safely be said that he has met that challenge more than adequately. Via
Brash, brutal and brilliant to watch, Brendon McCullum can bruise bowling attacks like few other men in international cricket. A wicketkeeper-batsman, McCullum has been used as an opener in the shorter formats and lower down in Tests, but whenever he arrives at the crease it's impossible to look away. He muscles balls over both sides of the field and was responsible for getting the IPL off to an electrifying start, lighting up the tournament's first match with 158 and showing what the format had to offer. Via
Steven Smith is the most promising Australian spinner since Shane Warne emerged - but he is more than that. He carries the extra advantage of being an outstanding batsman who could soon slot in to the top six for his country, whether he bowls or not. By the age of 21 he was in Australia's Test, one-day and Twenty20 teams, picked on promise and quickly showing the composure of a seasoned professional. There were words of caution about his early elevation, but there was no hiding the excitement about a player who gives the ball air, hits it hard, catches it at will and seems unbothered by pressure. Via
Perhaps no cricketer since Douglas Jardine has polarised opinion quite like Muttiah Muralitharan. For the believers, he's among the greatest to ever spin a ball. For the doubters, he's a charlatan undeserving of the game's greatest records, responsible for changes in the laws that they think have legitimised throwing. What was undeniable was his ability to turn the ball sharply on just about any surface, and bowl the sort of marathon spells that would have seen a lesser man retire after five seasons rather than 18. Whether Sri Lanka played at home, on pitches where he was often unplayable, or overseas, Murali was the go-to man for half a dozen captains. He seldom disappointed. Via
Brad Hodge will go down as one of the unluckiest nearly-men in Australian cricket. When he was dropped with an average of 58.42 only five matches into his Test career in 2005-06, he vowed to win back his place. He added only one Test, as a fill-in during a tour of the West Indies two years later, before his tally was permanently stalled at six matches in the baggy green. It was not an adequate reward for one of the most prolific run scorers in the modern era of Australia's domestic game. Via
An attacking batting allrounder, Thissara Perera began his career primarily as a bowler, opening the bowling for the Under-19s. He turned in noteworthy performances in the tri-nation tournament in Sri Lanka in July 2007 and in the youth Test against India in Colombo the following month. Those performances earned him a call-up to the U-19 squad for the World Cup in Malaysia in 2008. He received his maiden national call-up during Sri Lanka's tour of India in 2009 as an emergency replacement for Angelo Mathews. His aggressive batting in an ODI against India in Mirpur helped Sri Lanka pull off a win in a pressure situation. It quickly led to an IPL contract when he was bought by Chennai Super Kings for $50,000. His ambition is to remain associated with the game by taking up coaching. Via
A dramatic 2010 off-season ended in Stephen O'Keefe fielding for the Test team at Lord's and playing a Twenty20 international. O'Keefe, a left-arm orthodox spinner, had only played a handful of games for his state before he was picked for Australia A, benefiting from injuries to Jon Holland and Jason Krejza. After taking 7 for 35 and scoring 61 and 47 in a first-class affair against Sri Lanka A, he was soon flying to England to join the national team thanks to Nathan Hauritz's foot injury. He was surprised to play in the Twenty20 but made the most of the opportunity, finishing with 3 for 29 against Pakistan, and stayed with the squad for the Tests. Via
The best cricket move Michael Klinger ever made was switching from Victoria to South Australia for the 2008-09 season. Klinger was struggling with the Bushrangers but immediately sparked with the Redbacks and quickly became a batsman as consistent as Darren Lehmann or Greg Blewett, two former local favourites. The performances were so strong that after two summers in Adelaide he was appointed captain and was often mentioned for higher honours. Via
A tall allrounder who combines right-arm fast-medium bowling with strong lower-order batting, John Hastings enjoyed a breakthrough season in 2009-10. He was Victoria's leading wicket-taker in all three competitions, played in the final in all three formats, and not surprisingly was named the Bradman Young Cricketer of the Year. Most impressive was his Sheffield Shield collection of 446 runs at 37.16 and 36 wickets at 26.13, which confirmed him as a serious all-round talent for the Australian selectors to consider in the next few years. Via
After a see-saw career threatened to usher in early oblivion, Owais Shah finally got a chance at redemption in March 2006, making his Test debut against India in the final match at Mumbai. Following Michael Vaughan's return home due to injury early in the tour, Shah was drafted in as a replacement and made a composed and vital 88 in a memorable victory. A stylish and classical batsman who seemed to have the world at his feet as a teenager, he was compared in ability to the young Mark Ramprakash. Shah made his first-class debut in 1996, and at the end of the promising summer, Wisden praised his "abundant promise". His county cap followed, but back-to-back seasons with averages in the mid 20s ended with him being dropped by Middlesex in 2000. Via
- Mahela Jayawardhane
- S.Sreesanth
- Brendon Mccullum
- VVS. Laxman
- Pardhiv Patel
- Steven Smith
- Ramesh Powar
- Ravindra Jadeja
- Muttiah Muralidharan
- R.P. Singh
- Brad Hodge
- Thisara Perera
- R. Vinay Kumar
- Stephen O’ Keefe
- Owais Shah
- M. Klinger
- John Hastings
I personally Like to call them Demolition Men Kochi
Profile
For three seasons, Sreesanth was hardly anything more than an answer to a trivia question - who is the only Kerala bowler to have taken a Ranji Trophy hat-trick ? His rise, though, was rapid, and since he played for a weak side, unnoticed. Not too many bowlers get selected for the Duleep Trophy in their first season, like Sreesanth did in 2002-03 after snapping up 22 wickets in his first seven games. His progress was halted owing to a hamstring injury in the following year, but he returned stronger, with a more side-on action and increased pace, and a superb display in the Challenger Trophy, in 2005, propelled him to the national squad for the Sri Lanka series. In the last game of his impressive debut season, he snapped up 6 for 55 against England. Idiosyncratic, with an aggressive approach - to the stumps and the game - he can be expensive in one-dayers, but is also a wicket-taking bowler. He does it in Tests, too - in Antigua in June 2006 he fired out Ramnaresh Sarwan and Brian Lara (for 0) in successive overs, and then took five wickets in Jamaica and played a key role in bowling India to a historic triumph. The year was one of several highlights, including a haul of eight wickets against South Africa in Johannesburg, which helped India win their first Test in the country. However, things turned sour two years later in the inaugural IPL, when he was involved in a spat with Harbhajan Singh, who slapped him at the end of a match. Sreesanth signed with Warwickshire and enjoyed a satisfactory first season, but injuries and a steady decline in form kept him out of the national team. His problems with discipline are well documented; he was warned by the BCCI with suspension from domestic cricket if he violated the code of conduct. But his ability with the ball earned him a recall for the home Tests against Sri Lanka in November 2009. Via
At his sublime best, VVS Laxman is a sight for the gods. Wristy, willowy and sinuous, he can match - sometimes even better - Tendulkar for strokeplay. His on-side game is comparable to his idol Azharuddin's, yet he is decidedly more assured on the off side and has the rare gift of being able to hit the same ball to either side. The Australians, who have suffered more than most, paid the highest compliment after India's 2003-04 tour Down Under by admitting they did not know where to bowl to him. Laxman, a one-time medical student, finally showed signs of coming to terms with his considerable gifts in March 2001, as he tormented Steve Waugh's thought-to-be-invincible Australians with a majestic 281 to stand the Kolkata Test on its head. But even though he had another wonderful series against the Australians in 2003-04 with two centuries, one of them involving a back-from-the-dead, match-winning, 300-plus partnership with Kolkata ally Rahul Dravid at Adelaide, he hasn't quite managed the consistency that could have turned him into a batting great. Between dazzling and sometimes workmanlike hundreds, he has suffered the frustration of numerous twenties and thirties and has lost his place in the one-day side. Nothing, though, has deterred him from tormenting his favourite opponents with silken strokes and piles of runs: in the course of the double-hundred at Feroz Shah Kotla in 2008, he became the second Indian batsman after Tendulkar to score more than 2000 runs against the Australians. A couple of years later, batting with a runner due to back spasms, he conjured up a magical unbeaten 73 in a thrilling run-chase in Mohali. Via
Rudra Pratap Singh first made the headlines in the Under-19 World Cup in Bangladesh in 2004, taking eight wickets at 24.75 apiece and bowling well in the slog overs at the end of the innings. Later that year he joined the conveyor belt of Indian left-arm seamers, taking 34 wickets in six Ranji Trophy games for Uttar Pradesh, the joint-highest for the summer. He made the national one-day squad at the end of 2005, and took two wickets in his second over of international cricket, against Zimbabwe at Harare in September. He took four wickets (and the match award) against Sri Lanka in his third game, and three more in his fourth, before a run of four wicketless matches cost him his place after the first match of the West Indies tour in May 2006. He also won a couple of Test caps, winning the match award on his debut for some persistent bowling on a shirtfront at Faisalabad, where Pakistan ran up 588. He drifted out of contention after that, but he is still young, and well respected in the Indian set-up, as Virender Sehwag confirmed: "RP is a very talented bowler - his specialty is that he can bring the ball into the right-handers and swing it both ways." He was recalled for the tours of Bangladesh and England in 2007. It was the start of his most prolific season, which included a five-wicket haul at Lord's, crucial strikes in the victorious ICC World Twenty20 and a four-wicket haul in Perth which shut Australia out of the match. However, his bowling lacked bite after the tour of Australia and went wicket-less in the home Tests against South Africa. Via
Small even for his tender age, when Parthiv Patel led his side onto the stage during the Wisden Indian Cricketer of the Century Awards in London in July 2002, some people assumed he was the team mascot. But within a month he had instead become Test cricket's youngest wicketkeeper - at 17 years, 153 days - when called up to replace the injured Ajay Ratra for the second Test at Trent Bridge. And he didn't do too badly either, scoring a gutsy, unbeaten 19 which helped stave off an Indian defeat. Parthivl's glovework has varied from the competent to the shoddy - he was splendid in the home series against West Indies in 2002-03, but then struggled to inspire confidence thereafter, especially when standing up to the spinners. His ability with the bat ensured that he got an extended run - he scored an aggressive 62 at Sydney in 2003-04, and then faced up to Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Sami with plenty of poise, scoring 69 as an opener. However, those batting performances weren't enough to gloss over increasingly sloppy work behind the stumps, and the selectors' patience finally ran out after the third Test of the home series against Australia, when he was replaced by Dinesh Karthik. Parthiv's form took a turn for the better in 2007, on a twin tour of Zimbabwe and Harare for India A, where he hit three hundreds and a half-century. In the first match of a series against South Africa A at home Parthiv opened up with a fourth century on the trot. via
An allrounder who bats left-hand and bowls orthodox spin, Ravindra Jadeja has been playing cricket since the age of ten. He scored 53 for West Zone on his first-class debut in the 2006-07 Duleep Trophy and has been an important member of the Under-19 set-up. He was part of the U-19 team that lost the final of the World Cup in 2006 to Pakistan but bowled a crucial spell of 2 for 25 to bowl India to victory in the final of the 2008 tournament in Malaysia. Jadeja was part of the Rajasthan Royals, the inaugural IPL champions. He caught the attention of the national selectors with his strong all-round showing in the 2008-09 Ranji Trophy - 42 wickets and 739 runs - and was promptly picked for the ODI series in Sri Lanka. Via
A stocky offspinner who is more than handy with the bat, Ramesh Powar has been a consistent performer in domestic cricket for the last four seasons, and was crucial to Mumbai's Ranji Trophy success in the 2002-03 season. His 20 wickets with his flighted stuff was useful enough, but even more crucial was the runs he contributed. He never batted higher than No. 7 - sometimes going in as low as No. 10 - but ended up with the second-highest aggregate for Mumbai in the tournament, scoring 418 runs at more than 46, with most of those runs coming when his team was in strife. His domestic exploits soon caught the selectors' notice, and he made to the Indian squad for the tour to Pakistan. Both his offspin and his batting stood the test in the couple of one-day internationals he played, but even more impressive was his combative attitude, as he bravely tossed the ball up on batting shirtfronts, and didn't bat an eyelid while striking some lusty blows against the pace of Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Sami. An ideal bits-and-pieces player, Powar returned to the one-day side early in 2006, now armed with a new delivery - a drifter - which helped him to 63 domestic wickets in 2005-06, after 54 the previous season. Again he impressed with both bat and ball, although some critics made disparaging remarks about his waistline, causing him to tempt fate: "I've never missed a game owing to fitness problems." Almost inevitably, he then twisted an ankle and missed the first two ODIs in the West Indies in June 2006. Via
Vinay Kumar is a bowler in the Venkatesh Prasad mould - relying more on outswingers, legcutters and accuracy, than on outright pace. After the retirement of former India players Dodda Ganesh and David Johnson, Vinay became a key member of the Karnataka pace attack. First picked for the Ranji side in 2004-05, he quickly established himself by taking more than 20 wickets in each of his first three seasons. He soon developed an inswinger as a variation to his stock ball, resulting in a superb 2007-08 season, in which he was the second-highest wicket-taker in the Ranji Trophy. That convinced the Royal Challengers Bangalore to give him a contract, and he has frequently filled their fifth bowler's slot. Via
Mahela Jayawardene - Possibly the Captain of Kochi IPL Team
A prolific, elegant and utterly classy batsman with a huge appetite for runs, and a calm yet authoritative captain - those are the qualities that best describe Mahela Jayawardene. His sheer quality as a batsman was never in doubt even when he just entered the international scene, but for Jayawardene the biggest challenge has been to justify all the early hype. With a combined Test and ODI tally in excess of 17,000 - and a captaincy stint that included a World Cup final appearance - it can safely be said that he has met that challenge more than adequately. Via
Brash, brutal and brilliant to watch, Brendon McCullum can bruise bowling attacks like few other men in international cricket. A wicketkeeper-batsman, McCullum has been used as an opener in the shorter formats and lower down in Tests, but whenever he arrives at the crease it's impossible to look away. He muscles balls over both sides of the field and was responsible for getting the IPL off to an electrifying start, lighting up the tournament's first match with 158 and showing what the format had to offer. Via
Steven Smith is the most promising Australian spinner since Shane Warne emerged - but he is more than that. He carries the extra advantage of being an outstanding batsman who could soon slot in to the top six for his country, whether he bowls or not. By the age of 21 he was in Australia's Test, one-day and Twenty20 teams, picked on promise and quickly showing the composure of a seasoned professional. There were words of caution about his early elevation, but there was no hiding the excitement about a player who gives the ball air, hits it hard, catches it at will and seems unbothered by pressure. Via
Perhaps no cricketer since Douglas Jardine has polarised opinion quite like Muttiah Muralitharan. For the believers, he's among the greatest to ever spin a ball. For the doubters, he's a charlatan undeserving of the game's greatest records, responsible for changes in the laws that they think have legitimised throwing. What was undeniable was his ability to turn the ball sharply on just about any surface, and bowl the sort of marathon spells that would have seen a lesser man retire after five seasons rather than 18. Whether Sri Lanka played at home, on pitches where he was often unplayable, or overseas, Murali was the go-to man for half a dozen captains. He seldom disappointed. Via
Brad Hodge will go down as one of the unluckiest nearly-men in Australian cricket. When he was dropped with an average of 58.42 only five matches into his Test career in 2005-06, he vowed to win back his place. He added only one Test, as a fill-in during a tour of the West Indies two years later, before his tally was permanently stalled at six matches in the baggy green. It was not an adequate reward for one of the most prolific run scorers in the modern era of Australia's domestic game. Via
An attacking batting allrounder, Thissara Perera began his career primarily as a bowler, opening the bowling for the Under-19s. He turned in noteworthy performances in the tri-nation tournament in Sri Lanka in July 2007 and in the youth Test against India in Colombo the following month. Those performances earned him a call-up to the U-19 squad for the World Cup in Malaysia in 2008. He received his maiden national call-up during Sri Lanka's tour of India in 2009 as an emergency replacement for Angelo Mathews. His aggressive batting in an ODI against India in Mirpur helped Sri Lanka pull off a win in a pressure situation. It quickly led to an IPL contract when he was bought by Chennai Super Kings for $50,000. His ambition is to remain associated with the game by taking up coaching. Via
A dramatic 2010 off-season ended in Stephen O'Keefe fielding for the Test team at Lord's and playing a Twenty20 international. O'Keefe, a left-arm orthodox spinner, had only played a handful of games for his state before he was picked for Australia A, benefiting from injuries to Jon Holland and Jason Krejza. After taking 7 for 35 and scoring 61 and 47 in a first-class affair against Sri Lanka A, he was soon flying to England to join the national team thanks to Nathan Hauritz's foot injury. He was surprised to play in the Twenty20 but made the most of the opportunity, finishing with 3 for 29 against Pakistan, and stayed with the squad for the Tests. Via
The best cricket move Michael Klinger ever made was switching from Victoria to South Australia for the 2008-09 season. Klinger was struggling with the Bushrangers but immediately sparked with the Redbacks and quickly became a batsman as consistent as Darren Lehmann or Greg Blewett, two former local favourites. The performances were so strong that after two summers in Adelaide he was appointed captain and was often mentioned for higher honours. Via
A tall allrounder who combines right-arm fast-medium bowling with strong lower-order batting, John Hastings enjoyed a breakthrough season in 2009-10. He was Victoria's leading wicket-taker in all three competitions, played in the final in all three formats, and not surprisingly was named the Bradman Young Cricketer of the Year. Most impressive was his Sheffield Shield collection of 446 runs at 37.16 and 36 wickets at 26.13, which confirmed him as a serious all-round talent for the Australian selectors to consider in the next few years. Via
After a see-saw career threatened to usher in early oblivion, Owais Shah finally got a chance at redemption in March 2006, making his Test debut against India in the final match at Mumbai. Following Michael Vaughan's return home due to injury early in the tour, Shah was drafted in as a replacement and made a composed and vital 88 in a memorable victory. A stylish and classical batsman who seemed to have the world at his feet as a teenager, he was compared in ability to the young Mark Ramprakash. Shah made his first-class debut in 1996, and at the end of the promising summer, Wisden praised his "abundant promise". His county cap followed, but back-to-back seasons with averages in the mid 20s ended with him being dropped by Middlesex in 2000. Via
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