Top ten Karnataka cricketers to have played for India - Part 1

4. Javagal Srinath

Indian pace bowler Javagal Srinath (R) celebrates after trapping Pakistani batsman Salim Malik (L) leg before wicket on the third day of the inaugural match of the Asian Test championship between India and Pakistan at Eden Gardens

The ‘Mysore Express’ was a late discovery. Being a batsman in his youth, he has admitted to being unaware of the fact that he could bowl quick until much later, when he started playing club cricket. Luckily for India, he was spotted by Gundappa Viswanath and was picked to represent Karnataka.

Srinath is the fastest bowler that India has produced, and he consistently hit high speeds in the early parts of his career, though he did develop into a much more craftier bowler towards the later half.

Bowling booming in-swingers to the right handers and occasionally taking it away, he created immense problems for them. To the left handers though, Srinath was virtually unplayable. He troubled a seasoned batsmen like Allan Border in his debut series in Australia and earned high praise from the Australian captain, who earmarked him as a player to watch out for in the future.

In the One Day Internationals that followed, he was able to trouble the West Indian Brian Lara to no end, making the great man look amateurish at times.

Srinath represented India in 67 Test matches and picked up 236 wickets at a creditable average of 30.49. This is the highest number of wickets for an Indian fast bowler after Kapil Dev.

Javagal Srinath has also had an extremely successful ODI career, taking 315 wickets from 229 matches. Srinath took up the role of mentor to some of the younger Indian pace bowlers and was able to take India to the finals of the 2003 World Cup. In the company of Zaheer Khan and Ashish Nehra, the Indians had one of the best bowling attacks in the tournament.

Along with Venkatesh Prasad, he formed India’s best ever opening bowling combination, and working together, they were able to unsettle many an opposition. Srinath will always be remembered for being the lone warrior on the bare decks of the subcontinent, where he toiled manfully and proved that a fast bowler could indeed survive in India.