Brief profile of Mohammad Kaif by Matthew Reed

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Player:

M Kaif

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DateLine: 12th December 2005

 

Although a graceful, attractive batsman, Mohammad Kaif has had the misfortune to play in the era of India’s galaxy of batting talent. As such, he has played only seven Tests to date, where in many other countries he would have been much more of a regular. However, his rich talent had seen him complete 100 ODI’s before his twenty-fifth birthday, and at his current rate of appearances he may one day threaten batting and caps records in this form of the game, although his ability to play defensive, trenchant innings marks him out as closer to Dravid than Sehwag. As is typical with stop-start careers, Kaif has found consistent form at Test level elusive, although both his Test match half centuries came against a full strength Australian attack in the home series of 2004-5. In limited-overs cricket his style of batting means he is suited to coming in high up the order and anchoring the team’s innings, rather than having to thrash with a handful of overs left, although in the new era of a flexible Indian line up Kaif can be seen anywhere from no.3 to no.9. His finest hour arguably came in the Natwest Series Final of 2002, where he both top-scored, and perfectly engineered India’s stunning assault on England’s formidable 325 off 50 overs to win the final. However, on the biggest stage of all, he had a poor World Cup, which culminated in a duck in the final against Australia. However, Kaif is still young enough to play in at least three more World Cup’s, although the emergence of Gautam Gambhir and Mahendra Singh Dhoni may put a squeeze on his place in the ODI team. Kaif’s off-spin is competent but under used, and working on this may well help him retain his place in the side (his fielding is already excellent). His form in his handful of English county matches was inconsistent, although with India A he has scored highly in both the Caribbean and South Africa, which bodes well for his future prospects.

 

December 2005

(Article: Copyright © 2005 Matthew Reed)