2 modern batsmen who never got their due

#1 Shivnarine Chanderpaul

Shivnarine Chanderpaul

Shivnarine Chanderpaul was awkward in his batting style and unorthodox in his batting approach. Yet, he was one of the main pillars around which the West Indies batting revolved for the most part of the 1990s and 2000s.

He was a left-handed batsman with the crabbiest technique in cricket. Chanderpaul never played in the V or as per the batting handbook. He was deft and used his soft-hands to score runs. After Brian Lara retired, Chanderpaul held together West Indies' weak batting line-up. Although he suffered from a physical ailment, he never let it affect his batting.

Chanderpaul scored runs against all the opposition teams, and under varying conditions. He scored 11,867 runs in 164 Test matches. This comprised 30 centuries and 66 half-centuries. His career spanned 21 years, which is quite rare in the world of cricket. He holds the record of maximum runs when batting at number 5 position.

Chanderpaul never received the fame and adulation which his contemporaries like Sachin Tendulkar or Brian Lara got. One of the reason could be his unconventional batting style. The commentators were never effusive in their praise. It did not affect him though.