CricketFeature

5 Indian Origin Cricketers who scored ODI Centuries for other Country

Cricket is by far the No.1 sport and the most-followed spectacle in India. Even since a young age, many budding prodigies enroll themselves into local cricket academies dreaming about one-day representing Team India at international level. Having Centuries to their name for their team gives immense pride to their onus which they get committed to.

However, with a population of about 1.5 billion, only 11 players make the cut, which also shows the crazy amount of competition that is there in the systems leading up to the national team. Thus, some shift with their family to another country at an early age and after attaining citizenship, try to feature for that country’s cricket team. Some others are born to Indian parents but outside India and thus have the opportunity to represent that respective country.

While not many have been able to successfully carve out a career through such routes, some players have turned out to be brilliant for other countries and have also ended up scoring centuries. Here are five such players:

Advertisement

1. Hashim Amla

Hashim Amla was born to Indian parents, who originally were from Gujarat,  in Durban. Rising through the ranks of domestic cricket, Amla broke though in the South African team and became one of the Proteas’ greatest batsmen.

Amla still holds the record for fastest to 2000,3000,4000,5000,6000 and 7000 ODI runs. He has scored a humongous 27 centuries in ODIs and has amassed 8116 runs. 

He was also a prolific run-scorer in Test cricket, having scored 9282 runs in 124 Tests with a phenomenal 28 hundreds to his name. With a total of 55 international hundreds, he will go down as one of the greatest batsmen of the modern era.

Advertisement

2. Nasser Hussain

Nasser Hussain was born in Madras (now known as Chennai) and later shifted to England. Playing domestic cricket and impressing one and all, Hussain rose up the ladder and represented England at the highest level.

He played 96 Tests and 66 ODIs for England. Nasser Hussain has a solitary hundred in ODI cricket, which came coincidentally against India in the 2002 NatWest Final. He has scored 2332 runs in ODIs and has 5764 runs in the red-ball format, with 14 centuries to his name. 

He became the first player of Indian origin to captain England in international cricket and now is a renowned commentator and cricket analyst.

Advertisement

3. Shivnarine Chanderpaul

Shivnarine Chanderpaul is the first Indo-Caribbean player to play a 100 Tests for the West Indies. He was known for his unusual but highly effective batting stance. He was born to an Indo-Guyanese couple and played his cricket with great determination.

Chanderpaul scored a massive 11867 runs in Tests with 30 hundreds to his name. He also scored 8778 runs in ODIs, with 11 centuries. He was an absolute legend for the West Indies, especially at a time when they seemed to have lost their glory.

4. Ramnaresh Sarwan

Like Chanderpaul, even Ramnaresh Sarwan is from an Indian origin and was one of West Indies’ Stalwarts across all formats.

Advertisement

The right-hander played 181 ODIs for the West Indies in which he scored 5804 runs and has five centuries to his name.

In 87 Tests, Sarwan scored 5842 runs and has scored 15 hundreds. Both Sarwan and Chanderpaul had been pillars of the West Indies middle-order during their peak days.

5. Ravi Bopara

Ravi Bopara roots take him back to Punjab as he was born in England but to a Sikh family. Playing for Essex, Bopara performed consistently and got his call-up for the England team. 

Advertisement

He played 13 Tests for England, scoring 575 runs with three centuries to his name. He also scored 2695 runs in 120 ODIs and has a century to his name which came against Ireland in 2013.

Although he is nowhere near in the reckoning for getting a callback to the national team, Bopara continues to put in the hard yards in County cricket.

Advertisement

Related Articles

Back to top button