|
Vikram Singh Solanki (born 1 April 1976) is an English cricketer, a right-handed opening batsman. Solanki was born in Udaipur, India, but moved to Britain with his family at the age of eight. He made his first-class debut for Worcestershire in 1995, but had to wait until 1999 for his first century. In the latter year he achieved a batting average of over 40, something he repeated in 2000, 2002 and 2004. However, Solanki has not reached 1000 first-class runs in the English season since 2000, partly as a result of his England call-ups. Solanki was picked for two England A tours: to South Africa and Zimbabwe in 1998-99, and to Bangladesh and New Zealand in 1999-2000. His fine performances on these latter tours led to his making his full One Day International debut against the South Africans later that same winter. However, he was unable to translate his A-team feats into runs for the senior England side, and after eight innings yielding just 96 runs, he was dropped and not picked again for more than three years. As of November 2004, Solanki had represented England on 28 occasions in one-day cricket, although he had still not been selected for a Test Match. His undoubted natural talent has only rarely come through into his performances for his country, and his England batting average languishes in the lower twenties. He has made only two international hundreds, against South Africa at The Oval in 2003 and versus Zimbabwe at Bulawayo in 2004/05. Solanki is also an occasional bowler of off-spin for Worcestershire, although he has never bowled for England. On 12 November 2004, Worcestershire announced that Solanki would be the county's captain for 2005, succeeding the retiring Steve Rhodes.
Career milestones - 1995: First-class debut for Worcestershire
- 1999: Maiden first-class century
- 23 January 2000: One Day International debut: v South Africa at Bloemfontein, South Africa
- 28 June 2003: Maiden ODI century: 106 v South Africa, The Oval, London, England
|