CricketFeature

All-time XI of Indian origin cricketers who played for other countries

India has produced some of the greatest cricketers of all time who have propelled India to glory in different eras and different formats, but there have been many cricketers of Indian descent who have played for other countries and amplified their Indian origin through rock-solid performances.

Here is an all-time XI of Indian origin cricketers who played for the other countries –

Openers (Hashim Amla and Darren Ganga)

Hashim Amla and Darren Ganga played international cricket for South Africa and West Indies respectively and Amla has, in fact, been regarded as one of the greatest Test batsmen of all time. The right-hander, who has his origin in the Indian state of Gujarat, also captained South Africa in Test match cricket.

Advertisement

Darren Ganga didn’t captain West Indies, but he played 48 Test matches for the Caribbean team and scored 2160 runs with 9 fifties and 3 hundreds. Ganga captained Trinidad and Tobago in the domestic circuit of West Indies.

Middle Order (Nasser Hussain, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Shivnarine Chanderpaul)

Nasser Hussain played for England for a long period of time and has been one of their most successful Test captains. The 52-year old has got an astute cricketing brain and is a renowned television commentator in England these days.

The ancestors of both Ramnaresh Sarwan and Shivnarine Chanderpaul were from India who migrated to the Caribbean islands in search of work and eventually settled there. Sarwan and Chanderpaul were two immensely skillful batsmen who scored runs for West Indies on some of the toughest batting surfaces.

Advertisement

All-rounders (Sunil Narine, Ravi Bopara)

Sunil Narine also hails all the way from India and he himself revealed in one of his interviews that his father was such a big fan of the former Indian batsman Sunil Gavaskar that he decided to name his son Sunil as well.

Ravi Bopara’s roots are from the Indian state of Punjab. He is, however, born and brought up in England and has represented England in all formats of the game. While Bopara is still an active cricketer and is playing county cricket, he is not a part of the England national cricket team right now.

Bowlers (Ravi Rampaul, Monty Panesar, Muttiah Muralitharan, Stuart Clark)

Ravi Rampaul also comes from the family which left India for the Caribbean Islands a long time back. Rampaul grew up in West Indies, learnt his entire cricket there and eventually represented West Indies at the international level.

Advertisement

Monty Panesar belongs to a British Punjabi family and he recently said in an interview that he can understand Hindi and Punjabi very well. Panesar also revealed that in one of the games between India and England, when the former Indian captain MS Dhoni was instructing his players in Hindi, he understood everything that Dhoni was saying, but he acted as if he didn’t understand.

The former Sri Lankan off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan also has a Tamil background as his grandfather is from South India and he is even married to an Indian girl.

Many people would be surprised to know that even the former Australian fast bowler Stuart Clark has an Indian connection. His name might seem English, but his father was actually from Chennai.

Advertisement

Abhishek

I write a bit on cricket and I am more interested in technical and tactical side of the game, rather than bravado.

Related Articles

Back to top button