Introduction
Naman Ojha (full name- Naman Vijaykumar Ojha) was born on 20th July 1983 (the year when India won its first World Cup). He played as a right-handed batsman and also played the role that of a wicketkeeper. He played for the Madhya Pradesh cricket team in domestic cricket and was also a regular at the IPL.
Naman Ojha International Career
In this section, we will be talking about his international career.
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ODI Career
He played just one ODI match which was played on 5th June 2010 against the Sri Lankan cricket team. He scored just a run in seven balls before he dismissed by Kulasekara.
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Test Career
In test format too he played just a single match. This too was against the Sri Lankan cricket team. The match began on 28th August 2015 and Ojha scored 21 runs in the first innings and 35 runs in the second. Which was quite decent and India won the match as well.
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T20 Career
His T20I career too was short-lived as he was able to play just two matches. And interestingly, both were on consecutive days against Zimbabwe cricket team. In his debut match on 12th June 2010, he contributed just a couple of runs before being dismissed. On the second one on the next day, he made 10 runs.
Naman Ojha Domestic Career
His domestic career as a player for the Madhya Pradesh cricket team was quite prolific as went on to play 146 matches. He scored more than 9750 runs and also maintained the average of 41.67 runs per innings.
His total number of centuries being 22 and half-centuries were 55. His personal best total in this format was 219* runs.
While many will argue that his international career did not last long, one can’t ignore the contributions which he made to the Indian cricket.
Naman Ojha IPL Debut
He made his IPL debut on May 2nd, 2009 while playing for the Rajasthan Royals against the Deccan Chargers (now defunct). He faced 6 balls but wasn’t able to score a single run before getting dismissed by RP Singh.
If we talk about the match, then Deccan Chargers had won the match and had decided to bat first. They managed to put up a decent total of 141 runs. The top scorers for them were T Suman (41 runs), Rohit Sharma (38 runs) and Adam Gilchrist (39 runs).
Ravindra Jadeja was the best RR bowler who managed to take three wickets. The Royal chased the set target in 19.4 overs with the help of Abhishek Raut (36 runs) and Lee Carseldine (39 runs).
The match was quite close but this wasn’t the debut which Naman Ojha was looking forward to. The good though was that his team won.
Naman Ojha Retirement
He announced his retirement from cricket on 15th February 2021. His cricket career lasted for almost two decades. He will be remembered for the record which he created for the most dismissals in the Ranji tournament.
Hopefully, he will become a coach or a mentor to help aspiring cricketers refine their technique since he has a vast amount of experience.
Ojha played for several teams in the IPL as well. While doing his press conference, he thanked everyone who played an integral role in his career. He fondly mentioned BCCI and Madhya Pradesh Cricket Association for making his dreams come true.
While he retired from cricket, he has conveyed that he is open to playing in foreign leagues if required. Now, it would be interesting to see if he gets picked up by some franchises to do so. His fans are hoping for this to happen so that they can watch him play the sport once again.
