Ajit Agarkar

Agarkar was born on 4 December 1976 in Mumbai, to Meena and Balachandra Agarkar.

He has one sister, Manik Agarkar.

Agarkar started out as a batsman since his childhood before he was entrusted to cricket coach Ramakant Achrekar by his father.

On Achrekar's insistence, Agarkar shifted his school from IES to Shardashram Vidyamandir for Grade six.

He developed as a batsman who could bowl a bit during this time while practicing at the Shivaji Park.

He went on to perform consistently as a batsman scoring heavily in the inter-school Giles Shield tournament for the Under-16s making a triple century when he was 15.

He carried the form into the Harris Shield under-19 tournament scoring consistently "showing signs of being another Tendulkar in the making."

It was during this time that he began shifting focus to his bowling after it was "pointed out to [him] that it would be hard to make it into the Mumbai team as a pure batsman, and that he stood a better chance as an all-rounder".

As a child, Agarkar idolized pacers Kapil Dev, Michael Holding and Ian Botham; later also taking a liking to Allan Donald.

Agarkar is an alumnus of Ruparel College in Matunga.

He married Fatima Ghadially and has a son named Raj with her.

He resides in Narayan Pujari Nagar on the Worli Seaface in South Mumbai in Maharashtra.

He is relatively short compared to other fast bowlers, but he could still bowl at speeds more than 90 mph (~142–150 km/h).

He was generally a wicket taking bowler being the fastest (at the time) to 50 wickets.

During his career, many questions aroused about his economy rate.

However, his career economy rate was fair (5.07).

Ajit Bhalchandra Agarkar (born 4 December 1977) is a former Indian cricketer and a commentator.

He is and has been the chairman of the BCCI selection committee since July 4, 2023.

He has represented India in more than 200 international matches across all three formats of the game.

He made his Test and ODI debuts in 1998 and T20I debut in 2006.

Agarkar made his ODI debut against Australia at Kochi, on 1 April 1998.

He took the wicket of Adam Gilchrist in that match.

Soon after his debut, a 20-year-old Agarkar achieved his first Man of the match award in a crucial Coca-Cola champions trophy match against New Zealand taking four wickets including the crucial wickets of Stephen Fleming and Craig McMillan while India was defending just 220 on 17 April 1998.

The positive start to his early career, Indian fans were hopeful of him forming a strong bowling partnership with Javagal Srinath.

Srinath had been sidelined by injury during Agarkar's 1st season and was the only successful pace bowler in the National Team.

He is the third highest wicket-taker for India in One Day Internationals (ODIs) and has represented India in the 1999 Cricket World Cup, 2003 Cricket World Cup, 2007 World Cup and was member of the inaugural 2007 ICC World Twenty20 winning squad, along with one of the joint winners of the 2002 ICC Champions Trophy, which was shared with Sri Lanka.

The emergence of Ashish Nehra in 1999 and Zaheer Khan in 2000 created further competition for pace bowling options especially in home conditions.

Frequent injuries to Srinath, Nehra, and Agarkar meant India struggled with pace bowling resources.

Amongst Agarkar's better performances were his performances in Australia in the Test series of 1999, and also in the test series in 2003.

He holds the record for the quickest 50 in ODIs by an Indian coming off just 21 balls (against Zimbabwe in 2000).

He was an important part of the hugely successful Indian team in 2002 and 2003 with Agarkar contributing some memorable performances with the bat and the ball.

During this period, he was also a member of the Indian team which finished in the runner-up spot in the 2003 World Cup in South Africa, although he did not play in a single game throughout the tournament.

At Adelaide Oval in 2003, Agarkar took 6/41, to help India to win their first test in Australia in over 20 years.

Agarkar has performed better in ODI cricket, where he takes wickets regularly, although his economy rate is high.

He has also had a number of good batting performances.

While Agarkar remained a part of the team, he was not able to hold down a guaranteed place due to frequent injuries and severe competition for places especially after the emergence of Irfan Pathan in 2004.

He was the best Indian bowler in the one-day series during India's tour of West Indies in 2006.

He played for the Delhi Daredevils (Now Delhi Capitals) and the Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL, and captained Mumbai to its 40th Ranji Trophy title in 2013.

In 2013, Agarkar announced his retirement from all forms of cricket.

Post-retirement, he began a new career as a cricket analyst.