In India, a majority of the cricket players prefer to specialize in the batting department. Even at the gully cricket level, the players always wish to bat first because batting gives a different level of satisfaction to the ones playing cricket. Also, they find bowling and fielding a rather tedious job on the field.
India has produced several world-class batsmen in its rich history of cricket. The likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Virat Kohli, MS Dhoni, and several others have excelled in this department. These batsmen occasionally bowl as a part-time bowler. Some of the top-class batsmen have even succeeded in taking a wicket. Here is a list of those four famous Indian batsmen you might not know once took an ODI wicket in their careers.
Rahul Dravid:
Very few cricket fans would have seen Rahul Dravid bowling in international cricket. The Wall of the Indian cricket team holds the record for facing the most deliveries in Test cricket history. However, in ODI cricket, Dravid showcased his bowling skills multiple times. He took four wickets in his career and had the best figures of 2/43.
Sunil Gavaskar:
Sunil Gavaskar was one of the best Indian batsmen of the previous century. Gavaskar scored over 3,000 runs in his ODI career. However, he only bowled 3.2 overs in the 50-overs format. Zaheer Abbas from Pakistan remains the only player in ODI cricket history who lost his wicket to Sunil Gavaskar.
Mohammad Azharuddin:
Former Indian team captain Mohammad Azharuddin was known as a wristy batsman, who tormented the bowlers with his strokes. Azhar bowled right-arm medium-pace and scalped 12 ODI wickets, including the prized wicket of Martin Crowe from New Zealand.
Sanjay Manjrekar:
Sanjay Manjrekar has received a lot of criticism recently for his commentary, but he was an excellent batsman during his active days. Manjrekar bowled only 1.2 overs in his 8-year long ODI career, taking only one wicket of Australia’s Dean Jones.
