Praveen Kumar

Praveen Kumar had everything to become a domestic cricket legend: limited pace but ability to swing the ball both ways, persistence to bowl long spells, and an almost intuitive knowledge of how to take wickets on unresponsive Indian wickets. But he took his limited pace and remarkably smart application of that ability to a higher level, claiming 10 wickets in four matches in his debut ODI series, including a match-winning spell against Australia in the final of the 2007-08 CB Series.

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For two seasons before his ODI debut he had been Uttar Pradesh’s go-to man in Ranji Trophy. In his first first-class season, also UP’s championship season, he was easily the player of the year: 41 wickets and 386 runs, four five-fors, one 10-for, and three half-centuries. Whenever UP were in trouble, they could turn to Praveen, and sure enough something would happen. His consistency – 90 wickets in his first two first-class seasons – got him into reckoning for the national side. And although he has not made himself a fixture in the side, he has never been far from the selectors’ radar. His more recent call-up for India was for the five-ODI series in Sri Lanka in Januray 2009.