When it comes to Test cricket, there is Don Bradman and then the rest. To average 99.94 in just 52 Tests is unheard of and unlikely to be duplicated. On the other hand, if there’s one cricketer who is the embodiment of the most complete batter ever in the history of the game, it’s Sachin Tendulkar. The leading run-scorer in international cricket, highest century maker in Tests, the first man to score an ODI double century – you name it, and the record belongs to the Master Blaster.
One could say Bradman and Tendulkar are the two identities of cricket. Overtaking both these legends takes some doing. But believe it or not, in the early 1990s, an Indian batter began his career with a start so promising that only the sky was the limit. The year was 1991. Tendulkar, only two years into his international career, was the most exciting young batter on the horizon, destined for greatness and on the fast track to becoming the world’s best batter. However, he alone wasn’t going to be enough. Kapil Dev was on the last leg of his career, and barring Tendulkar and Mohammad Azharuddin, India needed young batters to lead their batting charge. So when India went to Sharjah to play Pakistan and West Indies in a tri-series, the BCCI handed a debut to a 19-year-old.
His first year in international cricket wasn’t too great. Batting in the middle order, he played 9 ODIs in the first 15 months of his career. Dropped after scoring 122 runs in seven innings, he had to wait for the year that would define him – 1992. He began the year with an unbeaten century against England in Jaipur, leading to his Test debut. So when Kolkata’s Eden Gardens hosted the first Test, it marked the beginning of something special. The beginning of what many believed to be a special career. The arrival of a certain Vinod Kambli.
In the news for his ill health, Kambli will go down as one of Indian cricket’s saddest and most unfortunate tales, especially considering his potential. Those within the Mumbai cricketing circuit back then and even now say that Kambli, in fact, was more talented than Tendulkar. But while one became Indian cricket’s greatest batter of all time, the other became known as nothing more than a missed opportunity.
Vinod Kambli’s rousing start to Test career
But let that take nothing away from the tremendous start Kambli made to his test career. After just seven Tests, Kambli had notched up two centuries and back-to-back double hundreds – 224 and 227 – against England and Zimbabwe. After 7 Tests, Kambli, who was 22 years of age then, had racked up 793 runs from 7 Tests at an average of 100.4 – more than Bradman himself. It’s almost unbelievable to think that a player threw it all after a start as rich as this. Kambli scored his maiden double ton in just his 3rd Test, while Tendulkar had to wait another 6 years – in 1999 against New Zealand – for his maiden double. Such was his rise. Still, after playing just 17 matches – his average of 54.20 – he never played Tests again for India, ending
But before it could be termed ‘meteoric’, Kambli plummeted to the lowest of lows. For the longest time, the image of him in tears after India crashed to Sri Lanka in the semi-final of the 1996 World Cup haunted was an everlasting one. He had already played his last Test match by then. After scoring 120 against Sri Lanka, Kambli managed just two half-centuries from his next 10 Tests. Back in the day, such returns weren’t poor enough to get dropped, but lack of performance alone wasn’t the only reason behind Kambli’s ouster. His off-field activities were making more noise, and his writing was on the wall.
Between 1991 and 2000, Kambli made nine comebacks into the Indian team before his career ended in 2000. He was just 28 then. Kambli played 101 ODIs for India in nine years, scoring 2477 runs at an average of 32.59, including two centuries.
