Vakkadai Chandrasekhar

Krishnamachari Srikkanth was an attacking batsman of India whose approach made his batting partner appear ordinary. However, Vakkadai or VB Chandrasekhar was an exception. He could bat as aggressively as Srikkanth and when the two opened for Tamil Nadu, it was observed on several occasions that Chandrasekhar outscored Srikkanth.

During the 1988-89 Irani Trophy, Chandrasekhar exhibited a century in just 56 deliveries which at that point of time was the quickest first class cricket hundred by an Indian batsman. He became the center of attraction due to this innings and was made a part of the Indian team against New Zealand. However, he could enjoy moderate success. In the Duleep Trophy in 1989-90, he struck two hundreds and was again in the national team that clashed against New Zealand in 1990. He displayed scores of 92 and 71 in the first class games. However, the tour management preferred Dilip Vengsarkar instead of Chandrasekhar when Sidhu was injured. In the ODIs that followed the Test matches, Chandrasekhar failed and was not considered again.

Career Highlights

Vakkadai Chandrasekhar got the opportunity to represent India in only 7 ODIs in which he accumulated 88 runs at a batting strike rate of 54.32 and batting average of 12.57. His highest score was 53. His experience in domestic cricket spanned over 81 first class matches in which he accrued 4999 runs with 237 not out as his highest score. He smashed 23 half centuries and 10 hundreds and took 54 catches.