Published: Sep 11, 2015, 01:25 PM (IST)
Edited: Sep 11, 2015, 01:34 PM (IST)
Mayank Agarwal scored 176 for India A against South Africa A in the tri series at Chepauk on August 13, 2015. He hasn’t played any One-Day International (ODI) till date. Bharath Seervi lists players who scored big centuries in List A cricket but didn’t play any ODI in their career.
Scoring big in domestic competitions is often a key factor to selection at International level. Still there are players who have scored big List A centuries but have not played ODIs or are waiting for their call. Recently, in the ‘A’-tri series held between the ‘A’ teams of Australia, India and South Africa, Mayank Agarwal scored 176 for India A against South Africa at the Chepauk, in Chennai. He is the first Indian to score a 175 in List A cricket without playing an ODI. READ: Mayank Agarwal joins Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Virender Sehwag and other Indians with multiple List A 150s
Mayank is just 24, and has many years of cricket left in him to play for the national team. But there have been players who scored big centuries in domestic one-days but never got a chance to play for their national teams in ODIs. There are 20 players including Mayank who have scored 175s in List A cricket but did not play an ODI. The table below lists the highest individual List A scores by players who have not played ODIs. READ: Rahul Dravid and Sunil Gavaskar helped me immensely: Mayank Agarwal
| Runs | Batsman | For | Against | Venue | Season |
| 229* | Ben Dunk | Tasmania | Queensland | SCG | 2014-15 |
| 222* | Graeme Pollock | Eastern Province | Border | East London | 1974-75 |
| 207 | Mohammad Ali | Pakistan Customs | DHA | Sialkot | 2004-05 |
| 202* | Alan Barrow | Natal | South Africa African XI | Durban | 1975-76 |
| 189* | James Benning | Surrey | Gloucestershire | Bristol | 2006 |
| 186 | Eddie Barlow | EJ Barlow’s XI | RG Pollock’s XI | New Wanderers | 1969-70 |
| 186* | Saeed Bin Nasir | KRL | Sialkot | Sialkot | 2002-03 |
| 181 | Reeza Hendricks | Knights | Dolphins | Bloemfontein | 2014-15 |
| 179 | Jonathan Dakin | Leicestershire | Wales Minor Counties | Swansea | 2001 |
| 179* | Daniel Smith | NSW | Victoria | Sydney | 2011-12 |
| 179* | Naved Malik | Rawalpindi Rams | ZTBL | Karachi | 2014-15 |
| 178 | Henry Nicholls | Canterbury | Wellington | Wellington | 2014-15 |
| 177 | Jamie Pyke | South Australia | Central Districts | Palmerston North | 1986-87 |
| 177 | Tony Wright | Gloucestershire | Scotland | Bristol | 1997 |
| 177 | Ijaz Mahmood | WAPDA | Rawalpindi | Rawalpindi | 1998-99 |
| 177 | Scott Newman | Surrey | Yorkshire | The Oval | 2009 |
| 176* | David Clarke | Bedfordshire | Derbyshire CB | Totternhoe | 2001 |
| 176* | Asif Zakir | Karachi | Sialkot | Sialkot | 2003-04 |
| 176 | Mayank Agarwal | India A | South Africa A | Chepauk | 2015 |
– Ben Dunk and Reeza Hendricks have made their International T20 debuts not ODIs.
– Graeme Pollock, Alan Barrow and Eddie Barlow had no option to play in ODIs due to South Africa’s ban.
– Mohammad Ali and Barrow did not score any other List-A century. Their double centuries remained their only List A hundreds. They are the only men with this ‘feat’.
– Dunk, Hendricks, Naved Malik, Henry Nicholls and Mayank are currently playing domestic cricket and may get to play in ODIs in future.
The highest First-Class score by a player who didn’t play Test matches is 443* by BB Nimbalkar. He played 80 matches from 1939-40 to 1963-64 but never got to play a Test. He is one among only eight players to score a quadruple-century in First-Class cricket.
The same for T20s is Graham Napier who scored 152* but still hasn’t played any T20I or any form of international cricket.
(Bharath Seervi is a cricket statistician who is obsessed with digging numbers, facts and records related to the game. An active member of Society of Cricket Statisticians of India, he blogs at www.cricketseervistats.blogspot.com. He can be followed on Twitter at @SeerviBharath and on Facebook here)
