Ajay Sharma - India - Batsman

Ajay Sharma is a former Indian batting all-rounder who played 1 Test and 31 ODIs for India. Even though he scored more than 10,000 first-class runs at an astonishing average of 67.46, he only represented India in a single Test. Considering a minimum of 50 innings as a criteria, there are only three men who had a better first-class average than Ajay Sharma.

He made his Test debut against the West Indies in 1987/88, scoring 30 and 23. However, he never played another Test even though he was outstanding in domestic cricket. In 31 ODIs, Sharma garnered 424 runs with an average just above 20. In December 1988, he scored consectuive fifites against New Zealand, but he could never emulate the same form again.

Sharma was also a slow left-arm orthodox bowler and ended his career with 15 ODI wickets. His best figures of 3/41 came against the Australians in October 1989. He played his last ODI against the West Indies in November 1993.

In 1996/97, he became only the third batsman to score 1000 runs in a Ranji season. He represented Delhi in six Ranji trophy finals, hitting centuries in 4 of them. However, his team only won the trophy twice.

In 2000, Sharma's career came to an abrupt end after he was implicated in a match-fixing scandal. He received a life ban for having connections with bookmakers.

In September 2014, a district court in Delhi cleared Sharma of all charges pertaining to the match-fixing case.

By Sidhant Maheshwari