There was a time when Indian-origin cricketers were ruling world cricket, playing for other sides. The biggest examples perhaps would be of Alvin Kallicharran, Sonny Ramadhin, Rohan Kanhai who had glittering careers in West Indies shirts. The trend continued after their retirement too with players like Jeetan Patel representing New Zealand and Naseer Hussain leading an England side.
Spinners like Samit Patel and Monty Panesar also represented England in international cricket. Indian MP Shashi Tharoor, a few days back had in an article written about getting an origin playing XI together to play against the country’s talismanic cricket team. So here we put together an XI consisting players who are still plying their trade for their respective nations. How about a match now?
#1 Hashim Amla (South Africa)
South Africa have had great openers in the past but Amla who is currently playing has also established himself as one of the best. He has been performing consistently for the Proteas over the last few years. Be it Tests, One-Dayers or Test matches he has adapted equally well to all the three formats. But Amla might not have played for South Africa at all. The right-handed batsman is of Indian origin with his roots in Gujarat. Amla, however, sees it with a different perspective.
"My grandparents came from India, but I am South African. I chuckle when I'm asked how I feel playing against India. It's a bit strange," Amla was quoted by PTI in 2010.He has scored 7470 runs from 94 tests with 25 hundreds and 31 fifties at an average of 51.16.
#2 Swapnil Patil (United Arab Emirates)
He is an aggressive batsman and was one of the seven players to make their ODI debut against Scotland in the World Cup Qualifiers in February 2014. He came very close to scoring a century in the very first game but missed it by a whisker as he remained not out on 99. Patil is originally from Mumbai and had featured for the state’s under-19s and under-22s.
Then in 2005 he got an offer to move to UAE where he was said he could play plenty of cricket. He grabbed the offer and after a four-year qualification period he made his first class debut.Though he is predominately a middle order batsman, he can be lethal at the top-order too. He was a regular in the side for UAE during the 50-over World Cup in 2015.
#3 Kinchit Shah (Hong Kong)
It’s still early days for the Indian born left-hander Shah. He started representing Hong Kong in ODIs from 2014 when he made his debut against Papua New Guinea. He has scored 58 runs so far from four ODIs with a highest score of 34 not out.
Shah was born in Mumbai in 1995. But later he shifted to Hong Kong. He started playing age-group cricket for Hong Kong representing them at the Under-15, Under-16, Under-17 and Under-19 levels. Shah’s T20 debut was against Canada in 2012. He has since then been a regular player in the squad. The dashing southpaw can also bowl off spin.
4# Denesh Ramdin
The wicket-keeper batsman hails from Trinidad but he is of Bhojpuri origin. He made his debut in both Tests and ODIs in the year 2005 against Sri Lanka and India respectively. He also holds the record for the highest score by a West Indies keeper in Tests. He also averages 25.87 in the format.
He took over the captaincy of Trinidad and Tobago in 2011 filling in the shoes of another Indian origin player Daren Ganga. He has four Test centuries to his credit, two against England and one each versus New Zealand and Bangladesh. In ODIs too he has performed quite well and has amassed 2121 runs from 136 matches. In May 2014, he was named the Test captain of the West Indies cricket team replacing Darren Sammy.
5# Krishna Chandran
It is a surprise given that Chandran was the first Keralite to play for United Arab Emirates given the huge Malaylee diaspora in the country. He was first named in the UAE squad in May 2014 for the Asian Cricket Council Premier League tournament. He had moved in from India in 2010 with his cricketing background helping him to find a job.
Chandran had played for a college in Bangalore and then went onto play in the U-19 and U-25 teams. But when he found there were not many possibilities in India he left for UAE in 2010. He represented the Fanatics Cricket Club and even lead them on a few occasions. His batting caught the eye of the selectors and he was called into the UAE’s World Cup squad. So far he has scored 134 runs from 12 ODIs and picked up 7 wickets.
6# Ravi Bopara
The crafty England all-rounder has his roots embedded in Gujarat. Bopara made his ODI debut in 2007 versus Australia and has gone onto play 120 games scoring 2695 runs with a highest score of 101 not out. With the ball he has picked up 40 wickets too. In T20s too Bopara has been a force to reckon with. He has 711 runs from 38 T20s to go alongside his 40 wickets. But recently he has been out of form and has been dropped from the England side.
Bopara has also played for Kings XI Punjab in the Indian Premier League. "I remember climbing up the rooftop of our house in Phagwara and watching birds and kites. The narrow and dusty lanes with less people around set a peaceful atmosphere. I liked being there. I will soon organise a trip to Phagwara," Bopara had told Indian Express while playing for the Kings in 2010.
#7 Sunil Narine (West Indies)
He is still ranked as one of the best mystery spinners in the world currently. Narine is always praised for his accuracy and the knack of picking up wickets. He is extremely lethal in T20 cricket as it is difficult to attack him.
His bag of tricks includes carrom balls, knuckle deliveries and skidders. He quite was instrumental in West Indies lifting the T20 World Cup trophy in 2012 but he has had his fair shares of controversy too. He has been thrice held for bowling with a questionable action but has each time come out of it without much scratch.
He was ranked the No. 1 bowler in T20Is when he was picked for the World T20 in 2016, but he withdrew from the tournament to focus on bettering his action. In April this year he played in the IPL for the Kolkata Knight Riders. Narine has an Indian father, who used to drive taxis before.
#8 Devendra Bishoo (West Indies)
The leg-spinner from West Indies rose to fame from Guyana where he started playing from a very early age. He was awarded the man-of-the-series in 2010 in the Caribbean T20. The performance catapulted him to the national side in 2011.
He was also awarded the ICC's Emerging Cricketer of the Year in that year. He is of Indian descent and his father’s name was Mohanlal."After he died, I made a promise to always give of my best and reach for the top," Bishoo was quoted by Espncrinfo after his father’s demise.
Bishoo has taken 59 wickets so far from 18 Tests matches 6 scalps from 5 T20Is.
9# Gurinder Sandhu
He is one of the youngest fast bowlers that the Australian team has. He made his ODI debut against India in January 2015. Sandhu was born in Australia to Indian parents who had shifted to the country in the 1980s. His father, Iqbal was a taxi-driver who ferried him to almost all his junior cricket matches. Sandhu, however, has not been a regular in the Aussie squad.
His last game in an Australian shirt was against England a year back. From two ODIs he has so far picked up three wickets. But he is just a 22-year-old and still has a long way to go.
10# Ish Sodhi
The lanky leg-spinner made his Test debut in 2013 against Bangladesh and then slowly made his way into the ODI and T20 arena. He was quite a handful with the ball in the 2016 World T20 against India where he picked up figures of 3/18.
In total the tweaker has 60 international wickets with best figures of 4/60. The 23-year-old was born in Ludhiana (Punjab) from where his parents moved to Auckland. He also started first playing first class cricket in India before the shift. He considers Anil Kumble as his idol.
11# Munis Ansari
He made his T20 debut last year against Afghanistan. He has taken 8 wickets from 11 T20 games and bowls with a slingy action like that of Lasith Malinga. Ansari had earlier plied his trade for teams like the Mumbai U-16s before his shift to Oman.
in the recently held World T20 he surprised a lot of batsman with his action. Commentators compared him to the legendary Lasith Malinga.
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