Santhakumaran Sreesanth is a right-handed tail-ender batsman and a right-arm fast-medium-pace bowler in the Indian Cricket team. Sreesanth was born on 6th February 1983 at Kothamangalam in Kerala. Sreesanth is a part of the Kochi Tuskers Kerala franchise in the IPL and plays for Kerala in first class cricket. He has an enigmatic personality and always fires-up his team by his enthusiastic and poignant nature and never looses his spirit in even tough situations. He has also played for other teams such as Asia XI, Kerala Under-19s, Warwickshire, Kings XI Punjab and others.
Early Life of Sreesanth
Santhakumaran Sreesanth was born on February 6th 1983, to the parents Shanthakumaran Nair and Savithri Devi, in Kothamangalam, Kerala. He has 2 siblings, an elder brother and a sister. In his early days Sreesanth used to do leg spin and his role model was famous Indian leg spinner Anil Kumble, who is now his team-mate. But his practice of frequently using Yorker turned him into a medium-fast bowler. He got a chance to National Cricket Academy and was selected for the MRF pace foundation in Chennai in the year of 2000.His debut match in first class was against Goa in 2002-2003 domestic season. In this particular season, Sreesanth took 22 wickets in 7 matches and was selected in Duleep Trophy for South Zone.
In 2004, he made a record by doing a hat-trick in Ranji Trophy against Himachal Pradesh; for the first time it was done by a Kerala bowler. In October 2005, Sreesanth got a chance in Indian B team in Challenger Trophy. Being a leading wicket taker in this series, for the first time, he entered into the Indian A-team for the home series against Sri Lanka.
Cricket Career of Sreesanth
Sreesanth first test match debut was in the home series against England in March, 2006. In his first match he took 4 wickets by scoring 95 runs at Nagpur. He missed the 2nd test in Mohali due to illness. Sreesanth returned with 5 wickets in the third test match in Mumbai.
Due to the ruling out of Irfan Pathan, he became the main bowler for the West Indies tour. He claimed 5 wickets for 72 runs, his one of the best match figures in the 4th test at Kingston, Jamaica. His best match figure is 5-40, which he performed against South Africa in the 1st test at Johannesburg in 2006. For this fabulous performance, South Africa was bowled out for just 84 runs and India managed to beat South Africa on their soil for the first time ever.
Sreesanth was selected for the ODI squad for the first time against Sri Lanka in Nagpur. He did not perform well and ruled out of the team for the 2nd and 3rd game. But he was included in the team for the last three matches. After that in the 5 match series against South Africa, Sreesanth did not play though he was in team. Later in Pakistan, he played all 5 matches and claimed 4 wickets in the 5th match. In 2006, he took 10 wickets at an average of 16.3in the Home Series against England with a brilliant performance of 6-55 in the final. Sreesanth was awarded Man of the Match for this match.
Sreesanth is related with the Indian Premier League and played for Kings XI Punjab team. In the 2008 IPL, he was the 2nd leading wicket taker in the entire tournament, taking 18 wickets. After the 2010 IPL, Sreesanth left the Kings XI Punjab team and joined Kochi Tuskers Kerala team for the 2011 IPL tournament.
Batting and Fielding Averages
|
Mat |
Inns |
NO |
Runs |
HS |
Ave |
BF |
SR |
100 |
50 |
4s |
6s |
Ct |
St |
| Tests |
27 |
40 |
13 |
281 |
35 |
10.40 |
539 |
52.13 |
0 |
0 |
38 |
4 |
5 |
0 |
| ODIs |
53 |
21 |
10 |
44 |
10* |
4.00 |
121 |
36.36 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
7 |
0 |
| T20Is |
10 |
3 |
2 |
20 |
19* |
20.00 |
14 |
142.85 |
0 |
0 |
4 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
| First-class |
69 |
93 |
29 |
593 |
35 |
9.26 |
1351 |
43.89 |
0 |
0 |
|
|
16 |
0 |
| List A |
82 |
36 |
15 |
127 |
33 |
6.04 |
285 |
44.56 |
0 |
0 |
|
|
9 |
0 |
| Twenty20 |
53 |
17 |
10 |
72 |
19* |
10.28 |
91 |
79.12 |
0 |
0 |
13 |
0 |
9 |
0 |
Bowling Averages
|
Mat |
Inns |
Balls |
Runs |
Wkts |
BBI |
BBM |
Ave |
Econ |
SR |
4w |
5w |
10 |
| Tests |
27 |
50 |
5419 |
3271 |
87 |
5/40 |
8/99 |
37.59 |
3.62 |
62.2 |
4 |
3 |
0 |
| ODIs |
53 |
52 |
2476 |
2508 |
75 |
6/55 |
6/55 |
33.44 |
6.07 |
33.0 |
2 |
1 |
0 |
| T20Is |
10 |
9 |
204 |
288 |
7 |
2/12 |
2/12 |
41.14 |
8.47 |
29.1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| First-class |
69 |
|
12336 |
7251 |
201 |
5/40 |
|
36.07 |
3.52 |
61.3 |
8 |
6 |
0 |
| List A |
82 |
|
3874 |
3690 |
104 |
6/55 |
6/55 |
35.48 |
5.71 |
37.2 |
3 |
1 |
0 |
| Twenty20 |
53 |
52 |
1062 |
1476 |
45 |
3/29 |
3/29 |
32.80 |
8.33 |
23.6 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
Controversies related to Sreesanth
After the victory of Kings XI Punjab over Mumbai Indians, in the 2008
Indian Premier League, Sreesanth was slapped by
Harbhajan Singh. It was widely reported in the media that Sreesanth appeared to be weeping miserably on the field after the incident. Sreesanth later commented that Harbhajan was like a brother and had no complaints against him. Moreover, in October 2009,
Kerala Cricket Association and the
Board of Control for Cricket in India issued warnings to Sreesanth for indiscipline, expressive and exuberant behaviour, failure of which would lead to severe measures like ban from domestic cricket.
Santhakumaran Sreesanth was also a National Champion in Break Dancing and also studied Psychology.
