How many cricketers have been dropped permanently after winning their country a Test? ‘Luck’ does play a role in a professional’s career. Indian cricketer Pragyan Ojha, who announced his retirement from the sport on Friday, was certainly not the luckiest.
November 16, 2013, is a date etched in the memories of Indian cricket fans. It was the last day in the office for Sachin Tendulkar – one of India’s most-loved sons. India won the Mumbai Test against West Indies inside three days and a massive margin of an innings and 126 runs. The chief architect of India’s win was left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha, who bagged his maiden ten-wicket (five for 40 and five for 49) haul in Test cricket.
While the presentation ceremony will be remembered forever for Tendulkar’s emotional speech, minutes before that, a 27-year-old Ojha had collected his Man-of-the-Match award for a stellar show.
India’s next series was the tour of New Zealand, and Ojha wasn’t picked. He never played an international match after the Mumbai Test. A year later, Ojha’s bowling action was deemed illegal, and he was banned from bowling. Despite getting his action cleared in early 2015, he wasn’t as effective as before. His comeback quest coincided with the rise of Ravindra Jadeja, one of India’s finest Test cricketers.
There’s more to the Tendulkar-Ojha connection:
In the 24 Tests, Ojha appeared in between 2009 and 2013; he claimed 113 wickets at 30.26. Having been a stalwart for Hyderabad, Ojha also played for Bengal and Bihar in domestic cricket. He remains one of the most successful cricketers in IPL, having won the tournament for Deccan Chargers in 2009, and for Mumbai Indians in 2013 and 2015.
