Tinu Yohannan - India - Bowler

The first cricketer from Kerala to represent India at the international level, Tinu Yohannan, played 3 Tests and 3 ODIs for India. He is the son of Indian long jumper, TC Yohannan, who held the national long jumping record for almost 30 years and was part of the Indian contingent at the 1976 Montreal Olympics.

In 2000, Yohannan was selected to hone his skills at the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore. Even though he only made his Ranji debut in 1999/00, he was selected to play for the national team just one year later. In December 2001, he made his Test debut against England in Mohali.

Yohannan's international career got off to a great start when he took the wicket of Mark Butcher in his very first over. He picked up 4 wickets in the game, accounting for the two English openers in both the innings. He remained wicketless in both the innings of the second Test at Ahmedabad and was left out of the team for the third Test.

Like his Test career, his ODI career too got off to a decent start as he took 3/33 against the West Indies in his debut game in Bridgetown in 2002. Even though he took another 2 wickets in the next game, he was very expensive as West Indies won the game by 7 wickets. His final appearance in ODIs came against Sri Lanka in the 2002 Natwest Series. Despite India's comfortable win in the end, Yohannan was dropped after he conceded 39 runs in just five overs.

He last played for India against New Zealand in December 2002. Playing in the second Test in Hamilton, he picked the solitary wicket of Lou Vincent in the fourth innings of the match. The Kiwis chased down the target of 160 with 4 wickets in hand and that was the last we saw of Yohannan in international cricket. In 59 first-class games, he picked up 145 wickets and also took 63 wickets in his 45-match long List A career.

He played for Kerala on and off till 2010 and then moved to Chennai to play first-division cricket. He represented Royal Challengers Bangalore in IPL 2009. In 2014, he was appointed as the bowling coach of Kerala.