The non-selection of Sarfaraz Khan for the India tour of West Indies has caused massive uproar among Indian fans. Sarfaraz, who has one of the best first-class records in the history of the game and is only behind the Great Sir Don Bradman when it comes to the best average. But Sarfaraz Khan isn’t the first cricketer who couldn’t represent India in Test cricket despite dominating domestic cricket. So, here are here are five players who never got to play for India:
Amol Muzumdar
Similar to Sarfaraz Khan, Muzumdar also represents Mumbai and is perhaps the first name many people think of when asked the question of who is the most talented batter to miss out for India. Muzumdar is maybe the most talented batter who consistently put in the work but never got his just rewards, if only purely because of the quality present ahead of him. In a career spanning nearly 20 years, he scored over 11,000 first-class runs at an average of 48, racking up 30 centuries. Of all batters never to have played for India, he tops the list in runs. As good as he was, he faced an uphill battle throughout his career to crack into a middle order that had made the Indian red-ball team a batting powerhouse.
Padmakar Shivalkar
In the same group as Goel is another left-arm orthodox bowler who averaged below 20 in that era, Mumbai’s (formerly Bombay) Padmakar Shivalkar. The office perhaps makes it into the conversation not just because of his exemplary skill and accuracy, but the longevity of his career, which lasted well over 20 years.
His numbers are eerily similar to Goel’s, with an average of 19.69 across that incredibly long career, and an economy rate just a touch above two. He was met by the same roadblocks as Goel, but it goes to show the remarkable depth of Indian spin bowling in that era, and how all 6 players can be considered true greats of the Indian game.
Rajinder Goel
Perhaps just as fearsome a lineup to break into as that middle order of the 1990s and 2000s was the famous four-headed spin machine of Bishan Bedi, Erapalli Prasanna, S Venkataraghavan, and Bhagwat Chandrashekar. With the tried-and-tested formula of the spin quarter right in front of them, there would have been more than a handful of spinners in the 60s and 70s who missed out on Test caps they might have earned in any other generation.
Haryana’s Rajinder Goel is perhaps the pick of Indian bowlers to never get a cap, taking 750 First-Class wickets at an average of 18.58, bowling at an economy of 2.10. He had a remarkable ability to keep it tight as well as take wickets, with 18 10-wicket matches — but never quite enough to establish himself in the famous quartet.
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KP Bhaskar
Krishnan Bhaskar Pillai always seemed to be on the outskirts of the Indian squad on the back of his quality performances in the Ranji Trophy, but he never quite cracked the team to make it into the lineup. Bhaskar played 95 games for Delhi in First Class cricket, and averaged over 52 — the sort of territory that otherwise is good enough for players to earn a shot at Test cricket, but never quite for Bhaskar. He ended his career with over 5400 runs and 18 centuries, an elegant and productive batter in the 1980s, who played alongside the country’s future greats but never quite reached that stage himself.
Ranadeb Bose
Ranadeb Bose scalped 57 wickets for Bengal in the 2006-07 season, which was good for second-most by a pacer at the time. It was good enough for him to earn a call-up as member of the touring party to England that summer, but wasn’t utilized in any of the matches. He wouldn’t get any closer than that, with the argument given that he didn’t have the sort of express pace that mattered internationally. Nevertheless, 317 Ranji wickets at 25.80 and a sub-25 average in List A matches to boot shows that Bose is perhaps the finest pacer never to get a cap for a country which is always on the lookout for high-quality speedsters.
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