Vinod Kambli could have comfortably crossed 1,000 runs in his first ten Tests if it hadn’t rained for five days in Kandy. In any case, his total after his tenth Test was 937 runs at 93.70, with four hundreds and three fifties. His score after the seventh test was 113.28.
However, he scored 147 runs at 14.70 in the next seven Tests, revealing a vulnerability against the short ball. His leadership skills, on the other hand, could use a lot of work. After that, he didn’t play another Test. His international career did not take off despite scores of 224, 227, 125, and 120 in his 3rd, 4th, 6th, and 7th Tests, respectively, with the 5th Test being rained out.
He returned to the ODI side on many occasions, but that was the end of his Test career. He finished his career with 1,084 runs at an average of 54.20.
It is said that he lacked the temperament and was discovered, and this legend is commonly accepted. We forget, though, that he managed to score big runs in First-Class cricket, hammering hundreds till the end, demonstrating time and time again that he possessed enough of that strange ingredient no one can quite describe but finds useful as a justification for exclusion — ‘Test-match temperament.’
He did lose his last seven Tests, but any middle order batsman who played from the late 1990s to the first decade of the 2000s had poor spells that lasted way longer than so many games. Sourav Ganguly, for example, scored 482 runs at 22.95 in 14 Tests from late 2000 to early 2002, more than twice the number of Tests in which Kambli struggled. Any batsman goes through a process similar to Kambli’s. Maybe it was far too soon to dump him for good.
To put this in context, VVS Laxman averaged 24.07 in his first 16 Tests, including 5 fifties in 30 innings. He might have been discarded indefinitely if he hadn’t hit 167 in Sydney, just like Kambli. Even imagining such a situation makes us cringe.
To put this in context, VVS Laxman averaged 24.07 in his first 16 Tests, including 5 fifties in 30 innings. He might have been discarded indefinitely if he hadn’t hit 167 in Sydney, just like Kambli. Even imagining such a situation makes us cringe.
The disposition claim seems quite ridiculous, considering that he finished with a near-60 First-Class average (which seems rather amazing given Ganguly’s average in First-Class cricket was in the early 40s). In his school days, the lad who partnered in the superlative collaboration with Sachin Tendulkar was not quite as well-rounded as the maestro. However, he may have had enough in him to improve on the flaws in his technique and forge a much longer international career than he did.
He later joined Boland’s staff. He ran for the Assembly in 2009, but lost. He also dabbled in both Hindi and Kannada films.