Vikram Solanki

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Vikram Solanki
England
Personal information
Full name Vikram Singh Solanki
Nickname Vik
Born 1 April 1976 (1976-04-01) (age 32)
Udaipur, Rajasthan, India
Height 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)
Batting style Right-handed
Bowling style Right-arm off break
International information
ODI debut (cap 156) 23 January 2000: v South Africa
Last ODI 1 July 2006: v Sri Lanka
ODI shirt no. 38
Domestic team information
Years Team
1995 – present Worcestershire (squad no. 3)
2006 – 2007 Rajasthan
Career statistics
ODI T20 Int. FC LA
Matches 51 3 220 318
Runs scored 1097 76 12179 8236
Batting average 26.75 25.33 35.92 30.84
100s/50s 2/5 0/0 21/66 13/43
Top score 106 43 232 164*
Balls bowled 111 0 6787 995
Wickets 1 – 84 26
Bowling average 105.00 – 46.96 33.61
5 wickets in innings – – 4 0
10 wickets in match n/a n/a 1 n/a
Best bowling 1/17 – 5/40 4/14
Catches/stumpings 16/– 3/0 237/– 120/–

As of 2 January 2008
Source: Cricinfo

Vikram Singh Solanki (born 1 April 1976 in India) is an English cricketer, who plays county cricket for Worcestershire, of whom he is the captain. In 2007 he became the 24th Worcestershire batsman to pass 10,000 career runs for the county.[1] He as also played over 50 One Day Internationals for his country as a batsman and occasional wicket-keeper.

Contents

[edit] Early life and career

Solanki was born in Udaipur, Rajasthan, India [2], but moved to Wolverhampton with his family at the age of eight. Solanki played junior and senior cricket for Wolverhampton cricket club where he was a childhood prodigy under coach Arthur Pickering he often starred as a wicket keeper, bowler and batsman, Solanki once scored over 100 in a twenty over game by himself. He made his first-class debut for Worcestershire in 1995, although he had played one-day cricket for the county two seasons earlier. In 1996 he was awarded the NBC Denis Compton Award. In 1999 he achieved a batting average of over 40, something he repeated in 2000, 2002, 2004 and 2006. 2006 was also the first season since 2000 in which he managed to top 1,000 first-class runs, making 1,252. Possessed with the priceless gift of timing and placement, he is able to play every shot in the game with supreme elegance and grace.Once seen, along with Owais Shah, as being part of a new breed of supremely confident British Asian cricketer who would be a key component of the English batting lineup going into the 21st century, Solanki has failed to live up to the huge acclaim he received as a youngster, and his chances of playing Test Cricket for England- Something that looked like being a formality 10 years ago; now appear to have faded.

[edit] England A tours

Solanki was picked for two England A tours: to South Africa and Zimbabwe in 1998-99, and to Bangladesh and New Zealand in 1999-2000. His fine performances on these latter tours led to his making his full One Day International debut against the South Africans later that same winter. However, he was unable to translate his A-team feats into runs for the senior England side, and after eight innings yielding just 96 runs, he was dropped and not picked again for more than three years.

As of the end of the 2006 season, Solanki had represented England on 51 occasions in one-day cricket, but had still not been selected for a Test Match. His undoubted natural talent has only rarely come through into his performances for his country, and his England batting average languishes in the mid-twenties. He has made only two international hundreds, against South Africa at The Oval in 2003 and versus Zimbabwe at Bulawayo in 2004/05.

[edit] One day internationals

Solanki played in four of the five one day internationals when England toured Pakistan in December 2005, his best score of 49 also being the highest in England's innings in the final match, which England went on to win by 6 wickets. However, Solanki was not selected for the team to go on the tour to India, instead being chosen to captain the 'A' team in the West Indies.

On 1 July 2006, Solanki took his first wicket in ODIs at Headingley, removing Sri Lankan opener Sanath Jayasuriya for 152. It was something of a hollow triumph, however, as Jayasuriya and Upul Tharanga (109) had put on 286, a world record for the first wicket in ODIs, [3] and England were crushed as Sri Lanka scored 324/2 to win by eight wickets in just 37.3 overs. Solanki made history in 2005 when he became the first supersub in a one day international cricket game, against Australia.[4] He also took part in the final two matches of England's time in the 2007 Twenty20 World Championship, replacing the injured Matt Prior as wicket-keeper and opening batsman.

[edit] Worcestershire

Solanki is also an occasional bowler of off-spin for Worcestershire, although he has only bowled a handful of overs for England. Worcestershire appointed Solanki as captain of the county for 2005, succeeding the retiring Steve Rhodes. In September 2006 he agreed an extension to his contract which will see him remain at the county until 2009. [5]

[edit] Rajasthan

Together with Worcestershire team-mate Kabir Ali, Solanki accepted an offer to play for Rajasthan in the Indian Ranji Trophy during the 2006–07 season.

[edit] Indian Cricket League

With very less hope of ever turning out for England again, Solanki joined the rebel Indian Cricket League in 2007 and currently plays for the Mumbai Champs.

[edit] Career milestones

  • 22 June 1995: First-class debut for Worcestershire: v Hampshire at the County Ground, Southampton
  • 16 May 1997: Maiden first-class century: 128* v Oxford University at The Parks, Oxford
  • 23 January 2000: One Day International debut: v South Africa at Bloemfontein, South Africa
  • 28 June 2003: Maiden ODI century: 106 v South Africa, The Oval, London
  • 7 June 2007: Highest First-Class Innings: 232 v Surrey, Worcester

[edit] References

  1. ^ Most Runs for Worcestershire. CricketArchive. Retrieved on 2007-04-27.
  2. ^ Profile, Vikram Solanki Website. Worcestershire CCC. Retrieved on 2008-05-04.
  3. ^ Highest Partnership for Each Wicket in ODIs. CricketArchive. Retrieved on 2006-10-02.
  4. ^ Supersub Solanki in cricket first. BBC (2005-07-07). Retrieved on 2007-05-02.
  5. ^ Solanki agrees new deal at Worcs. BBC Sport (2006-09-27). Retrieved on 2006-09-30.

[edit] External links