Ajit Agarkar tries to fool us with wickets - we won’t be fooled
Ajit Agarkar is still all kinds of terrible, despite taking four wickets in the fourth one-day international at Old Trafford. We’re not going to be swayed. We accept that his ball to Ian Bell was a beauty, although it was a hideously dreadful leave on Bell’s part. You don’t think it was that bad? The ball hit his stumps. It doesn’t get any worse than that.
Other than that, Agarkar’s wickets were largely the result of batsmen taking on a bad bowler. He went for a run a ball in a low-scoring game. When he came back into the attack later on, with pressure mounting, he promptly bowled two wides. That sums it up, but the wickets will save him.
Four wickets will keep in the side for a good few games. This is how he operates. He flukes a good haul of wickets in one game and then takes none for many in the next three matches.
If you’re only going to pick four bowlers in a one-day game, you’d think you’d want four good ones. Yet in an era where India’s pace bowling resources have never run deeper, there’s been one conspicuous survivor from an earlier period. Ajit Agarkar.