Lakshmipathy Balaji

Lakshmipathy Balaji is a right arm medium fast bowler and a right handed batsman with the Indian cricket team. He has also played for the Tamil Nadu and Chennai Super Kings cricket teams. Presently, he is a part of the Kolkata Knight Riders team to play for the IPL 5 season.

Balaji started playing first class cricket from 2001. He made his debut in International cricket in a One day International match against West Indies at Vadodara in 2002 where he proved expensive to the Indians by giving away 44 runs in the 4 overs that he bowled. He could not claim a single wicket in the match and the West Indies won the match by 5 wickets.

In 2003, Balaji played his first test match against New Zealand at Ahmedabad. He bowled 26 overs giving away 84 runs and claimed the wicket of Hart in the first innings. In the second innings Balaji maintained an economy of 1.90 runs per over however could not claim a single wicket in the 11 overs that he bowled. The match resulted in a draw. After a spate of injuries he joined the Chennai Super Kings of the Indian Premier League and claimed the first Hat-trick of the IPL Twenty20 Tournament in a game against the Kings XI Punjab. At present, he has been bought by the Kolkata Knight Riders team to play at the IPL 5 season.

Balaji became more popular after his overseas series against Pakistan in 2004 where he played a significant role to help India win the title. For a while after the tour, his international career came to a stall as he went into recovery from an injury that he had picked up. But he again came back in 2005 when Pakistan toured India.

In a total of 30 One day Internationals, Balaji has scored 120 runs and claimed 34 wickets at an economy of 5.57 runs per over. He also has 27 wickets at an economy of 3.43 runs per over in the 8 test matches that he has played.

He made an on and off appearance at the national team. In 2008, his excellent form at the Ranji Trophy earned his team, Tamil Nadu, a place in the semi-finals. In 2009, he was dropped from the ODI squad but selected for the Test team. He appeared for the Test match against Sri Lanka after a five year lull after 2004.

Balaji was selected as part of the Chennai Super Kings at the IPL in 2008 and has ever since been a part of the team. He was lucky to be the first ever to strike a hat-trick at the IPL in a match against the Kings XI Punjab. He helped his team clinch a win with a five wicket haul. He was, later on, a part of Kolkata Knight Riders IPL team, 2011.