Mohammad Azharrudin-very good or great batsman?

[Harsh Thakor]

This year in February the batting genius Mohammad Azharrudin turned 50.I am sorry I missed his 50t h birthday in February and I apologize to readers.The maestro was born in Hyderabad in 1963.Azharrudin was the equivalent of a musical composer or poet to batting.He simply held the bat like a wand.His phenomenal wristwork would enable him to penetrate the most impregnable of fields effortlessly.He gave the classic exhibition of touch art. looking like a painter making curves on the board.Even the best deliveries would be caressed to the boundary with the remotest of deflections.I have never seen a better leg-side player. Azhar launched his career against England in 1984 ,replacing Sandeep Patil scoring 3 successive centuries in his first 3 tests .India lost the series but discovered a boy wonder.,who reminded one a lot of the Australian great,Greg Chappell.The same youngster scored a match-winning 84 to take India home in the 1st match of the World championship tournament in Australia. After a bad streak in for for 12 tests including tours of Australia and England Azhar made a spectacular return scoring 199 versus Sri Lanka in 1986.Against Pakistan in 1986-87 he scored a classic 141 at Calcutta and a sedate 110 at Jaipur.He failed against the West Indies in 1987-88 and in 1989 . In Pakistan in 1989 he redeemed himself registering scores of 109,77 and 52.He treated the likes of Imran,Khan,Wasim Akram and Abdul Qadir with contempt ,ruthlessly punishing their bowling. The following summer in New Zealand he scored a classic 192 of 259 balls against the likes of Richard Hadleee.He scored 303 runs averaging 75.75. in the series.Here we saw Azhar batting like a true master executing every stroke in the book. In the 1990 summer of England Azharrudin reminded one of the golden age of batting.His batting revealed a silken touch and supreme artistry,very much in the mould of Denis Compton of England.Whether driving ,cutting or flicking Azhar exhibited the dominance of an emperor and made the fielding side look like pawns on a chess board when batting.In the series he aggregated 426 runs at an average of 85.20.At Lords he scored on of test cricket's all-time great innings when scoring his century of a mere 88 balls.At Old Trafford his 179 in 291 minutes was another classic.He became the 1st Indian batsmen to score 100 runs in a session between lunch and tea.Wisden noted that "Azharuddin had given another dimension to oriental batting artistry with his classic placements through square leg and mid-wicket." From 1990-92 Azhar had a decline in form before a spectacular comeback at Calcutta in a home series versus England.His 192 at Calcutta was an all-time classic The English bowling was literally taken by the sword.In 1993-94 he batted like a champion against Sri Lanka scoring 41,108 and 152 in succesive test matches.In the series he scored 341 runs at an average of 102.33.He mastered the turning ball like few other great batsmen had done before. In 1994-95 he scored a meagre 178 runs against the West Indies.and had a disappointing series in England in 1996.Against South Africa in 1996-97 he made 2 spectacular centuries at Calcutta and Kanour.He saved India from a precarious position at Calcutta while in Kanpur he won a game for India on a difficult wicket Azhar proved his mastery over a great bowler like Alan Donald.Again on the 1997 tour of South Africa he scored a spectacular century in the 2nd test at Johannesburg in a huge partnership with Sachin Tendulkar. He again had a run of low scores before the 19989 series versus Australia when he scored 163 at Calcutta.He again performed spectacularly versus New Zeland scoring a century in Wellington.Finally the batting artist bade farewell to the game by scoring a century versus South Africa in the year 2000 at Bangalore.Ironically it was his 99th test. A significant aspect of Azharuudin's carer was his captaincy.He was one of India's most succesful skippers of all time giving a dynamic approach to the art captaincy and few Indian skippers were more attacking.He reversed the defensive trend of captains like Gavaskar or the often impulsive approach of Kapil Dev.In fact he led a renaissance in Indian cricket who started to win many more tests. under his leadership.He lost his captaincy to Tendulkar mid-way in 1996 but regained it in 1998. Azhar was remarkable batsman in one day International cricket where his ability to improvize was a trumpcard.He often topped the batting averages in one-day series and tournaments like in the 1990 Texaco trophy in England and scoring 332 runs at an average of 47.42 in the 1992 world cup.I can never forget his classic 93 versus Australia which almost won the game for India.It was simply batting at it's best.I can also never forget his successive match-winning knocks of 74 and 95 not out which enabled India to draw the one day series versus England at 3-3. Azhar was also a spectacular fielder in the covers who pulled of some of the most stunning catches. How does Azharrudin compare with the all-time greats and was he a truly great batsman ?In my view on a slow wickets he was an absolute master ,and he was truly great batsman against medium -pace and spin bowling.He average 45.03 ,scoring 6231 runs.with 22 centuries.However he did not perform well against the best bowling attacks of West Indies and Australia and was at his best against England,New Zealand Sri Lanka and marginally South Africa.Gavaskar,Tendulkar,Dravid and Vishwanath all performed outstandingly against the best bowling attacks of their day.Often Azhar suffered from patches of inconsistency.In the one day format he may get the tag of 'truly great' but in test cricket he would rate as 'very good'.In natural ability he was in the Gundappa Vishwanath league who on his day could even overshadow Sachin Tendulkar.However Vishy was a far better player of the bouncing ball.Maybe if Azhar had applied himself more he could have joined the greats like Greg Chappell but then again sport is all about temperament.Overall Azhar would rank behind Tendulkar,Gavaskar,Dravid,Vishwanath and arguably even Dilip Vengsakar because 'colonel' had a much better record against West Indies.On the leg-side he was the best ever Indian batsman who played the flick and glance strokes better than even Viv Richards or Sachin Tendulkar. Sadly a black mark was created on his life when he was banned for life for fixing.The cricketing world forgot how this man carried a willow and investigated his misdeeds.In his 50th birthday year let us remember this batting genius who captured our hearts mote than great musicians and artists and proved that cricket was an art above everything else.His batting at his best will be cherished till the game exists.Long live the memory of legend Mohammad Azharudin!

[Sidhoni]

****ing match fixer kthxbye

[Texy]

POS traitor. Doesn't batter how good he was....none of that counts when u sell out your country....mofo.

[Marut]

Azhar should also be ranked below Mohinder Amarnath, arguably one of our best players of fast bowling. I am not sure why you omitted Amarnath from your list. Azhar would not be equal to the pugnacious Laxman either.

[jf1gp_1]

he was a fixer thats it

[Zanjeer]

Harsha bhogle strikes again....⚡⚡⚡⚡

[JourneyMan]

Was a legend. Sad finish to a great career.

[Scarves]

Seriously? He was amazing against spinners. Ponting went to him after 2001 to learn from him and it paid off. Murali said he was the hardest to bowl to I think. He was an amazing batsman to watch, better to watch than Tendulkar.

[Vijay.Sharma]

If we were to rank Indian batsmen across our Test history Azza would definitely be in the top 10. I would have him in my All Time XV for India. He will play ahead of Lax and Vishy at number 5 (with Mankad at 6) in England and New Zealand. In Aus, WI and the sub continent it would be Lax.

[Number]

I will take this match fixer's captaincy over Dhoni's in tests anyday. At least his moves earned him some bucks and were probably not as baffling.

[Marut]

I will take this match fixer's captaincy over Dhoni's in tests anyday. At least his moves earned him some bucks and were probably not as baffling.

Under Azhar we won a single test match overseas, against Srilanka. The most disgraceful period for India as a touring nation was during Azhar's reign.

[Number]

Under Azhar we won a single test match overseas' date=' against Srilanka. The most disgraceful period for India as a touring nation was during Azhar's reign.[/quote'] yep, went overboard there. But in my opinion if anything outdoes Azhar's poor record overseas its Dhoni's teams 8 consecutive surrenders .