Ashok Dinda

Paras Mhambrey, who coached the Bengal Ranji side for two years, had this to say about Ashok Dinda: "The best thing about him is his attitude. He has come up the hard way, and doesn't take anything for granted. He is always prepared to bowl long spells, and never shies away from hard work." That sentence sums up Dinda's rise in domestic cricket and his subsequent selection on the fringes of the national team.

Dinda's was not an instant success story, though his spotting was to an extent fortuitous. It was a happy accident though, for Bengal and for Dinda. Sometime in 2004-05, Dinda came to Kolkata - a 3-hour drive away from his village - and bowled in one of the nets under the watchful eyes of coach Atal Dev Burman. Burman was so impressed with the bowler that he asked him to stay back, and that started Dinda's journey.

Soon he broke into the Bengal Ranji side, where he became a regular member. Dinda has an exaggerated leap in his delivery stride that almost makes it seem as if he is floating in air before releasing the ball. That has not impacted his speed though, and he is capable of consistently hitting the high 130s kmph mark.

Dinda was picked up by the Kolkata Knight Riders before the inaugural IPL, and he was immediately effective. Captain Sourav Ganguly showed faith in him by handing him the new ball, and he responded well. In the second season of the IPL, which marked a low-point for the Knight Riders, Dinda went on record to state that the team would have done better under Ganguly, after Ganguly was deposed as captain by coach John Buchanan. He was then picked up by Pune Warriors in 2012 and fared decently with them.

Dinda earned a call-up to the national T20 squad in 2009 against Sri Lanka on December 9 at Nagpur, bagging the wicket of Sanath Jayasuriya. Almost a year later, in June 2010, he made his ODI debut against Zimbabwe and was also picked for the 2010 Asia Cup. He was also picked for the longest format of the game after a good time in the domestic arena, but he did not get to play in the home series against England.

He got to play a couple of ODIs against Pakistan and England respectively in early 2013 but couldn't quite make the playing XI again. Because of his abilities to bowl fast yorkers, he was bought by Bangalore for the 2014 edition of the IPL after a decent outing with Pune the previous year.

by Cricbuzz Staff 2014