Amit Mishra, the classical leg spinner, is another must unlucky cricketer who played for India. He bats right-handed tail-ender and bowls aggressive right-arm leg-breaks. Amit Mishra plays for Haryana in the Ranji Trophy and the Delhi Capitals in the Indian Premier League’s T20 competition. He has also represented India in Tests, One-Day Internationals, and Twenty20 Internationals.
Amit Mishra: The Unlucky Cricketer of India
Table of Contents
Amit Mishra Early Life
Amit Mishra was born on 24 November 1982 at Faridabad, Haryana. He made an impression with his traditional, attacking leg-spin in the early 2000s.
His main strength is flight and leg break while surprising batters with the odd googly. However, with two of India’s best spinners, Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh – at the top of their career. So, there was no place for Amit Mishra in the India squad.
So the unlucky Mishra had to wait for many years to get the chance to play his first test match for India.
Amit Mishra in Domestic Cricket
Amit Mishra made his first-class debut in 2000/01 for Harayana. He has more than 500 first-class and 242 List A wickets to his name.
Amit Mishra For India
In Test Cricket
In 2002, Amit Mishra got the first call to the Indian side for the test series against the West Indies. However, he did not get the chance to play. He wasn’t picked again until 2007 when he was selected to play against South Africa’s A-side. He had such an immediate impression. Mishra took five wickets in that game, and he quickly established himself as a strong option with some consistent performances.
Amit Mishra was named for the Indian side to face the visiting Australians in 2008. That opportunity came after the captain and first-choice leg spinner Anil Kumble was injured.
Mishra made his Test cricket debut against Australia in the Second Test at Mohali (PCA stadium). He made a wonderful start to his Test career, becoming only the sixth Indian to take a five-wicket haul in his first match. In the first innings, he took five wickets for 71 runs. Than 2/35 in the second, giving him the match’s highest wicket-taker as India cruised to victory.
In the next match, Harbhajan Singh injured himself. Mishra took his spot when Kumble came into the team. It was the perfect opportunity for him to establish himself as India’s first-choice leg spinner, with his first series happening to coincide with Kumble’s final. With his variations, Amit Mishra put the Australians in a difficult situation and finished the series with 14 wickets from three Tests.
Amit Mishra was then selected for India’s early-2009 Test series of New Zealand. However, India played with only one spinner, and Mishra watched as Harbhajan Singh took over as the only spinner.
After that New Zealand tour, India had the next test series against Sri Lanka in November 2009. Amit Mishra had a very bad performance in the first test match at Ahmedabad. In that high-scoring match, he took only one wicket in 58 overs after considering 203 runs. So he was dropped for the next test.
Mishra again returned for the Bangladesh tour in 2010. He played as the only spinner in the First Test in Chittagong after Harbhajan Singh was injured. As a night-watchman, Amit Mishra scored 50 runs in the second innings and got seven wickets in that match. But in the next test, he was dropped again.
Again Amit Mishra came into the test team in 2011 for England tour. But it was a disaster for Indian Team.
After four years of gape, Amit Mishra again called into the test in 2015. In the absence of Jadeja, Amit Mishra came into the test team as the second spinner along with Ashwin. He finished the series with 15 wickers. But Ravindra Jadeja came back in the 2015-16 test series against South Africa. Amit Mishra’s played in only two of the four Tests matches of the series. But he did well on spin-friendly pitches, taking seven wickets at 17.28 and dismissing AB de Villiers (twice), Hashim Amla, Faf du Plessis, and JP Duminy.
Amit Mishra was again selected for India’s team for the 2016 tour of the West Indies. He played in two tests and took six wickets.
Amit Mishra played his last test match on December 16, 2016, against England at Chennai. He got one wicket in each innings. He played 22 test matches, got 76 wickets, and the best bowling figure is 5/71.
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In ODI
Amit Mishra played his first ODI much before his Test debut. During the TVS Cup in 2003, Mishra made his One Day International (ODI) debut against South Africa at Dhaka. After Harbhajan Singh was rested for the final two round-robin matches on the Bangladesh tour, Amit Mishra played in two ODIs against Sri Lanka and Bangladesh in a triangular tournament. In July 2013, he got the chance to play the one-day series against Zimbabwe after almost two years of his last international appearance. He didn’t disappoint.
He was named Man of the Match for his 4/47 bowling against Zimbabwe in the third One-Day International. In that five One-Day Internationals series against Zimbabwe, he took 18 wickets at an average of 11.61, equaling Javagal Srinath’s world record for most wickets in a bilateral series. Srinath made that record in seven-match series. So, Amit Mishra equalled achievement in fewer matches than Srinath.
But in the 5-match ODI series against Australia in October/November 2013, he played only one match. After that, Mishra was then selected for the three-match ODI series against the West Indies. He also played the ODI series for India that toured South Africa in December 2013 too.
In the 2014 Asia Cup, he appeared in a handful of games and impressed everyone. On February 2, 2014, Mishra bowled a brilliant spell for two wickets against Pakistan in the 6th match of the Asia Cup. Mishra’s bowling figures of 2 for 28 from 10 overs were the sixth-best economical in Asia Cup history (bowlers who have bowled a minimum of 10 overs).
After that, Amit Mishra was selected for the ODI side for New Zealand’s 2016–17 tour of India. He was named Player of the Series after taking 15 wickets in five games. On Oct 29, 2016, at Visakhapatnam, Mishra finished his bowling spell with six over two maiden 18 runs and five wickets. That performance helps India win the series 3–2. Mishra got the Man of the Match award. Unfortunately, that is his last ODI for India. MS Dhoni give-up his white ball the captaincy. And Virat Kohli took over. Then captain Kohli just ignored Amit Mishra.
He played 36 ODI for India and got 64 wickets. The best bowling figure is 6/48.
In T20
Amit Mishra played his first T20 for India against Zimbabwe in 2010. Because of his good performance in IPL 2013, Mishra was selected for the T20 World Cup in 2014 in Bangladesh.
Mishra bowled 2 for 22 against Pakistan and 2 for 18 against the West Indies in the first two matches of the 2014 T20 World Cup, winning him the Man of the Match award for both performances. He took ten wickets at 14.70 runs per over while giving only 6.68 runs per over.
But on the other hand, Mishra was unable to execute under pressure, as he went for plenty in both the semi-final and final, which India ended up losing to Sri Lanka.
Amit Mishra was selected for the West Indies tour for 2016. In one of the two T20I games, he took three wickets for a career-best 3/24. His last T20 match for India was against England in Bengaluru, Feb 1, 2017. Mishra played 10 T20 matches for India. The best bowling figure is 3/24.
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In IPL
Amit Mishra is one of the most successful spinners in the Indian Premier League. He has been one of the finest spinners and the only bowler to take three hat-tricks, which kept him in the spotlight in IPL. Amit Mishra had three hat-tricks for three different teams: Delhi Daredevils (2008), Deccan Chargers (2011), and Sunrisers Hyderabad (2013).
Mishra returned to Daredevils in 2015 after Delhi paid INR 3.5 crore to secure his services.
In 154 games, he has taken 166 wickets. Mishra is the second-highest wicket-taker and the highest wicket-taker as a spinner in IPL. Mishra has one of the best eco. rate of 7.34 and has been instrumental in capturing wickets in the middle overs. Amit Mishra is one of the star performers in IPL.
Team Played For
India, Delhi Capitals, India Blue, Deccan Chargers, Haryana, North Zone, Sunrisers Hyderabad, Uttar Pradesh, Rest of India, India A, Central Zone, India B, India Red
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