Andrew Symonds

Andrew Symonds is an aggressive all-rounder for the Australian cricket team. Symonds is a right handed batsman and an occasional right arm medium pace bowler. More than being an all-rounder he is well known as a very hardcore batsman. He is also an exceptional fielder. Irrespective of his size and weight Symonds is very agile, can take catches well, has remarkable reflexes and has a powerful and precise throwing arm.

In the 1994-95 season Symonds debuted for the Queensland state team. For this state he has taken more than 100 wickets and scored more than 5000 runs. In 1999 during the Sheffield Shield final he took four wickets and scored 113 runs in a losing cause. In the 2002 Pura Cup final he was awarded the Man of the Match as he took 6 wickets and scored 123 runs. In 1998 Symonds debuted for Australia in the One day Internationals. He preferred Australia than the West Indies where his parents were eligible or England which is his birth country. In the One day Internationals he has scored runs at a strike rate of more than 90 and his maximum score has been 156. He secured his place in the Australian squad by scoring 143 runs not out in the opening match of the 2003 World cup. As he displayed good form in One day International cricket in 2003 he was given an opportunity to debut in Test cricket during the Australian tour of Sri Lanka in March 2004. However he had a tough time against Muttiah Muralitharan on the spin favoring Sri Lankan pitches and in four innings could not cross 25. So, after these two Test matches he was dropped. Overall Symonds has a very successful ODI career as compared to test cricket. In the year 2008 he was also a part of the Indian Premier League (IPL). On February 20, 2008 Symonds signed up with the IPL franchise Deccan Chargers from Hyderabad for US$ 1,350,000 making him the second most expensive player in the league.

Major achievements

The best One day International score of Symonds was 156 which was made against New Zealand on 7 December 2005 at Westpac Stadium. His best One day International bowling statistics were 5 for 18 against Bangladesh. The world records for the maximum sixes hit during a first class match (20) and during a first class innings (16) are both held by Andrew Symonds and set by him as a 20 year old while playing against Glamorgan for Gloucestershire. His first innings score was an unbeaten 254.