Harvinder Singh - India - Batsman

Harvinder Singh, who played for Punjab and Railways was a nippy customer with the ball in hand. He could surprise the batsman for a bit of pace and had that ability to extract movement off the track, too. He also played for India in three Tests and 16 ODIs, but with limited success.

If we jog our memory down the lane, it was the SAARC tournament held in Bangladesh in 1997 that brought the pacer into the limelight. While representing India A he picked up a six-for against Pakistan A and then followed it up with a four-for against Bangladesh A. Both these performances catapulted Harvinder's name into the national reckoning.

He soon made his ODI debut against Pakistan in the Sahara Cup in 1997. In his first game itself, he proved his worth by picking up three wickets. One of his scalps was the dangerous, Shahid Afridi. Even though, Harvinder was expensive, he picked up crucial wickets in ODIs during that time. This helped him to win a place in the Indian Test side when Australia toured the country back in 1998. He played in all the three Tests in that series, but could manage to take only four wickets and was dropped. He never again played for his country in the longer format of the game.

Harvinder played in the ODI arena until 2001, before he lost his place in the abridged version of the game as well. A back injury didn't his cause either. Harvinder, who by then had moved over to Railways, continued to serve the team in First-Class cricket until 2008 when he retired at the relatively young age of 31. At present, he is the coach of Railways' unit.

By Bharath Ramaraj