Venkatpati Raju- The Simple yet Strong Left Arm Spinner

Venkatpati Raju- The Simple yet Strong Left Arm Spinner: Venkatpati Raju, the slow left arm orthodox spinner was a fair spinner known for tossing the ball up and maintaining a consistent length. The former left arm spinner was born on 9^th July, 1969. He remained as the second spinner of the squad as he had to play with more prolific colleagues in the likes of Anil Kumble in the initial phases of his career and Harbhajan Singh at the conclusive phases of his career.

Raju started his career at a very early age and surprisingly made his Ranji debut when he was 16years old. Ironically nicknamed as ‘Muscles’, Raju performed well for India Under-19 and bagged 32 wickets in the Ranji Trophy season of 1989-90 which gave his career a hike. This performance in the domestic level earned him a spot in the national team. And he played his first test against New Zealand at Christchurch in 1990. He managed to pick up 3 wickets in the match by conceding 86 runs. He was sent in as the night-watchman for India and he scored a well made 31 runs and was the last person to be dismissed in the Indian innings. His international career took a pause after he was struck by a bouncer from Courtney Walsh.

In November, 1990, India hosted Sri Lanka for a single match test series and Raju did manage to produce the best of his performances in the test. India were under definite pressure after failing to win a single test in their last 14 tests overseas. Raju helped India’s cause and bagged 6 wickets by conceding just 11 runs in the first innings as Sri Lanka were bundled for just 82 runs which happened to be their lowest Test score. Also, he picked up 8 for 37 in the entire match. Indeed, Raju was the architect of the much needed victory for India.

Raju formed the incredible spinning triplet for India alongside Anil Kumble and Rajesh Chauhan. Until 1992, he was the leading spinner for India and took the team to a commendable position by the aid of his brilliant bowling.

Raju played 28 tests in his career and took a total of 93 wickets. He was decently successful on home soils and bagged 71 of his test wickets at home which suited his style of bowling. In the 1994-95 test series against West Indies, Raju took 20 wickets in the three off test series which also included 2 5-wicket hauls. He was also a decent performer in the ODIs and he played a total of 53 matches and bagged a total of 63 wickets with a best performance of 4/46. Raju also had a sound domestic career and managed to take 589 wickets in the first class level in India.

Venkatpati Raju believed in keeping things simple and slow and was fruitful for the same on a number of occasions. After his retirement, he has continued vesting his services to cricket and was a selector and also a coach for the Hyderabad Cricket Association.

On the occasion of his birthday, the entire team of CricTracker wishes the shadowed yet prolific left arm spinner of India a very Happy and a Prosperous Birthday!!