Hyderabad: India has produced some of the best cricketers in the world and it continue to do so till date. However, there are some famous cricketers who despite having an Indian origin played for the team other than India and made their mark.
Here’s the list of top 10 players who can trace their roots back to India but they played for other countries.
Nasser Hussain (England)
Nasser was born in Chennai in 1968 before but he moved to England in his childhood. Making his debut in 1990, Hussain took over the captaincy baton from Alec Stewart in 1999 and was one of the most celebrated English captains.
He played 96 Tests and 88 ODIs scoring 5764 and 2332 runs respectively including 15 centuries before hanging his boots in 204.
Interestingly, Nasser, in his childhood days, also played quite a few matches (first-class) for Tamil Nadu.
Bob Woolmer (England)
Woolmer was born on 14 May 1948 in Kanpur, India and his father Clarence was also a cricketer and played for United Provinces (now Uttar Pradesh in India) in the Ranji Trophy. Woolmer debuted for England in 1972, however, despite being a successful First-Class cricketer, he failed to translate his performances at the Test level.
Bob played only 19 Tests and six ODIs for England and scored 1,080 runs overall. He was also a decent medium-pacer who picked up 420 first-class wickets. After his retirement in 1984, Woolmer went onto coach two major Test nations — South Africa and Pakistan before dying in mysterious circumstances during the 2007 World Cup in West Indies.
Hanif Mohammad (Pakistan)
Hanif was also known as “The Original Little Master.” The Pakistani legend made debut on 16th October 1952 against India and set numerous records in Test cricket. He played the longest innings in history (16 hours), was the first Pakistani player to score a triple century, and held the highest individual score of 499 for three decades.
Interestingly, Hanif was born on December 21, 1934 in Junagarh, India, and his brothers Sadiq, Mushtaq and Wazir were also born in Junagarh and went on to represent Pakistan in Test cricket.
Hanif played for 55 Test matches and averaged 43.98 scoring twelve centuries. At his peak, he was considered one of the best batsmen in the world.
He was so talented that he could bowl with either arm, and even kept wicket on a number of occasions. He is known to have played the slowest test innings when he scored 20 off 223 balls at a strike rate of 8.97.
Hanif retired in 1969 and in 2013 he was diagnosed with lung cancer. He died on 11 August 2016 at age 81.
Muttiah Muralitharan (Sri Lanka)
Muttiah Muralitharan is a name that needs no introduction. The Sri Lankan legend has over 1300 international wickets and is regarded as the greatest spinner of all time by many.
However, not many people are aware of the fact that Murali’s family is based in Chennai. His grandparents moved to Sri Lanka in search of work, but after a few years they returned, however, his father stayed back.
Also, the former off-spinner married a Chennai native, Madhimalar Ramamurthy and he even holds Overseas Citizenship of India, hence does not need a visa to visit his family in the country.
Shivnarine Chanderpaul (West Indies)
Chanderpaul was born on 16 August 1974 in Guyana in a family which has its base in India. Considered as one of the greatest batsmen of all-time, Chanderpaul is the first Indo-Caribbean to play 100 Tests for the West Indies, and third player with the international career span over two decades after Sachin Tendulkar and Sanath Jayasuriya.
Chanderpaul made his debut for West Indies on 17 March 1994 against England and he was known for his unique batting stance which made it very difficult for bowlers to dismiss him. He has also led the Windies team during 2005-2006.
The southpaw played 164 Tests during his 21-year-long career and scored a staggering 11867 runs with 30 tons and 66 fifties at an impressive average of 51.37. He performed well in the ODIs too, scoring 8778 runs with 11 centuries and 59 half-centuries and an average of around 41 in 268 ODIs before hanging his boots in 2015.
Monty Panesar (England)
Panesar was born on 25 April 1982 in Luton to Indian parents, who migrated to England from Punjab. Interestingly, Monty is the only Sikh player of Indian descent to have played for England for quite a long time. A left-arm spinner, Panesar made his Test cricket debut in 2006 against India in Nagpur and in 2007, he made his ODI debut.
Monty played 50 Tests for England and bagged 167 wickets which include 12 five-wicket-hauls.
Hashim Amla (South Africa)
One of the modern greats of the game Hashim Amla was born on 31st March, 1983 in Durban, Natal Province but he is actually of Gujarati descent with his ancestors moving to SA many years back. Amla’s grandparents were Muslim Ansari from Surat.
Amla made his debut against India in 2004 and became the first South African to make a triple hundred (311*) against England. He is regarded as one of the greatest opening batsmen of all time and he served as South Africa's Test captain from June 2014 to January 2016.
Amla announced retirement from international cricket on August 8, 2019. However, he still holds the record for being the fastest ever to 2000, 3000, 4000, 5000, 6000 and 7000 ODI runs. He is also one of the few batsmen to score ODI centuries against all Test playing nations.
Ish Sodhi (New Zealand)
Sodhi was born on 31 October 1992 in Ludhiana (Punjab) from where his parents took him to New Zealand when he was four years old. The leg-spinner made his debut for the Black Caps on 9 October 2013 in a Test match against Bangladesh.
Apart from being a leg-break bowler, Sodhi can bat well down the batting order. Till date, Sodhi has played 17 Tests, 33 ODIs and 45 T20Is in which he has picked 41, 43, and 53 wickets respectively.
Sodhi even attained the no.1 ranking for T20I bowlers in January 2018, jumping from no. 10 at the end of the previous year.
Sunil Narine (West Indies)
Sunil Narine who was born in Trinidad, is a cricketer of Indian descent. He burst onto the international scene as a mystery spinner and is regarded as a highly rated off-spinner who has found his niche in one day and Twenty20 cricket.
Sunil made debut for West Indies in 2011 and he has 21 test wickets from 6 test matches, 92 wickets from 65 ODIs and 52 wickets from 51 T20I.
Other than picking wickets with his mysterious spin, Sunil is also known for his swashbuckling batting and with his all-round abilities, Sunil has also been one of the key players for the Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL helping them clinch the title in 2012 and 2014.
Keshav Maharaj (South Africa)
Keshav was born in Durban on 7 February 1990 and he is of an Indian origin. His father Athmanand was an Indian who played as a wicketkeeper for the Natal province but couldn’t play at the Test level because of the apartheid era. Keshav’s forefathers belonged to Indian origin as they had shifted to South Africa from Sultanpur in Uttar Pradesh back in 1874.
Kehsav made his debut for The Proteas on November 3, 2016, against Australia at the Western Australia Cricket Association (WACA) stadium, Perth. He is the first spinner to debut at this venue.
Maharaj has taken 110 wickets in 30 Test matches, and is a key spinner as well as a handy lower order batsman in South African line up. His best figures are 9 for 129 in a single innings of a Test game.
