From MS Dhoni To Sunil Gavaskar: Five Most Selfish Innings By Indian Batsmen

Cricket is a team sport, players wear their hearts on their sleeves while playing for their respective national teams. Yes, there are international records meant to be broken, but a player should always play for helping their team win games,  but never for achieving personal milestones.

Through the history of the gentleman’s game, there have been various players who can be deemed selfish, because they chose individual honour over collective glory.

In fact, in the past, there have been a few Indian batsmen as well, who could have won games for India. But instead, they became selfish for runs it ultimately came back to haunt the team.

Today, we will be listing down five most selfish innings by Indian batsmen:

1) MS Dhoni vs England, 2018

Arguably one of India’s most successful captains ever, MS Dhoni’s name features on this list because of his selfish innings versus England, in the year 2018.

Under the leadership of Virat Kohli, Team India on their tour of England had already registered a win in the T20 series and were hoping to win the ODI series as well.

Having already won the first ODI, the Men in Blue got off to the worst start possible and were staring down the barrel after Kohli got dismissed.

KL Rahul came out to bat but failed to impress and then the onus was on Dhoni to steer the team to victory. He played selfishly and scored just 37 runs off 59 balls, due to which India stuttered to a mere total of 236. England won the game by 86 runs, and Dhoni was blamed subsequently for playing too slowly.

2) Dinesh Karthik vs Sri Lanka, 2009

Dinesh Karthik had to endure the wrath of fans despite scoring the winning runs against  Sri Lanka in 2009 because he prevented Sachin Tendulkar from scoring a century.

Batting first, Sri Lanka scored 240 runs, which was not a big target so India began slowly. Opener Virender Sehwag got dismissed early and after him, wickets kept falling regularly. In came Karthik who helped India steady the ship alongside Sachin.

In the last over seven runs, and the master blaster was on strike. He hit a boundary on the first ball and gave the strike to Karthik.

At that time, Sachin’s score was 96* but Karthik hit a boundary and won the game for India, after which he was labelled selfish by fans, as he prevented Sachin from scoring yet another brilliant century.

3) Sunil Gavaskar vs England, 1975

Sunil Gavaskar is a true legend, but his act of selfishness in 1975, still lingers on as a painful memory in the minds of cricket fans.

India played against England in the ICC ODI World Cup 1975 and were asked to chase the target of 334 runs. They got off to a wobbly start and lost three wickets early, after which Gavaskar came out to bat but played an extremely selfish and painstaking inning of 36 runs in a mammoth 176 balls.

He later claimed that the wicket was slow, but England too had scored 334 runs, on the same track.

Due to Gavaskar’s selfish innings, India lost the game by a whopping margin of 202 runs, after which the 70-year-old was considered as one of the most selfish batsmen at that time.

4) Sachin Tendulkar vs Bangladesh, 2012

Sachin Tendulkar’s name also features on this list, but how can a man who is called ‘God of Cricket’ for his contribution to the sport could have been selfish?

Actually, to complete his 100th century, he played extremely slowly, and India as a consequence of this lost the game. The Men in Blue were playing against Bangladesh and were asked to bat first. They lost Gautam Gambhir early, after which Sachin and Virat Kohli stitched 148-run partnership.

Soon Kohli got dismissed but Sachin kept going. To ensure he scored his 100th ton, the legendary batsman played very slowly just to be safe, this eventually came back to haunt the Indian team, as Bangladesh won that match by five wickets.

5) Ravi Shastri vs Australia, 1992

Ravi Shastri’s selfish innings where he scored just 25 runs in 67 balls remains one among most infamous ones of all time.

India played against Australia in the ICC World Cup 1992 and lost their opening batsman K Srikkanth early in the chase after the target was reduced to 236 off 47 overs due to rain. Shastri tried to steady the ship but instead played an extremely slow inning of 25 runs off 67 balls.

It was the second consecutive time, that he began the innings slowly, having also done the same in the previous match, but against Australia, it cost team India dearly as they had to taste defeat by just one run.