Kambli and the nine comebacks

Ever since his dropping for patently non-cricketing reasons after the 1996 World Cup, Vinod Kambli has struggled to establish himself in the Indian team. Still only 28, Kambli makes his ninth comeback in nine years of international cricket, a figure that would do Mohinder Amarnath proud. The circumstances are propitious for him to settle into an extended presence in the Indian one-day side. With Azhar and Jadeja in limbo, the search for an experienced hand to stabilise the middle order has dredged up Kambli, veteran of 95 ODI's, yet again.

Vinod Kambli © CricInfo Ltd 1999

With a gaggle of youngsters straining at the leash to be unloosed into the international arena, Kambli will be on trial right from the first game against Kenya. The selectors have reposed confidence in him for the moment but like his earlier on the comeback trail, he will be doled out no favours. A bare minimum of opportunities are likely to be on offer. It is the kind of response under intense pressure that separates the great from the ordinary. Just one big score can make it that much more difficult for Kambli to be tossed out by selectoral whims.

Let's see how Kambli has responded on each of his previous comebacks. He made his one-day debut at Sharjah in October 1991 with scores of 23 not out, 40 and 30 in three matches, a competent showing for a debutant. Kambli, seen purely as one-day material at this point, was passed up for the Australian tour that followed, including the Carlton & United Series, also involving West Indies. He made his first comeback at the 1992 World Cup in February-March but a highest score of 24 in four games was not sufficient to retain his place.

After the Indian team returned from the twin tours of Zimbabwe and South Africa, Kambli made the second of his comebacks against the touring Englishmen. In the first ODI at Jaipur on January 18, he scored an unbeaten century on his 21st birthday. Eleven days later, he made his Test debut at the Eden Gardens and from that point on was a fixture in both the Test and one-day sides. Until and including the 1996 World Cup. After which he was dropped for two one-day tournaments and the England tour in the summer of 1996 for reasons that still baffle the imagination. This after Kambli was second only to Sachin Tendulkar in the Indian batting averages at the World Cup.

Comeback # 3 was at the Singer World Series in Sri Lanka in August 1996 where he made three appearances following which he travelled to Toronto for the inaugural version of the Sahara Cup. Kambli played the first four games but a poor run of scores saw him being replaced by Saurav Ganguly for the final encounter. It was the start of another spell in the wilderness and Kambli only regained his place at the fag end of the season for the Independence Cup in May 1997, taking the place of the dropped Mohd. Azharuddin. Despite making 65 off 80 balls in the Chennai game where Saeed Anwar's 194 eliminated India, he was forced to make way for Azhar after the tournament.

Kambli cooled his heels until the second Sahara Cup in September 1997 which was comeback No.5. Two appearances here - in the last two games of the series - and two more in the three match one-day series in Pakistan followed. He notched up a valuable 53 in the successful runchase at Karachi which India won after Rajesh Chauhan's last over six but was nevertheless issued with the marching orders. In April 1998 Kambli initiated his sixth comeback during the Pepsi triangular series between India, Australia and Zimbabwe. He made a couple of thirties but was dropped during the series for VVS Laxman and injury followed insult when he wrenched an ankle fielding as a substitute. That put him out of circulation for almost a year.

It was not until March 1999 that a fully fit Kambli returned to the Indian side for the seventh time, in the Pepsi triangular at home involving Pakistan and Sri Lanka and then for the Coca Cola Cup in Sharjah. Four games in two competitions yielded a highest of 23, hardly enough to ensure a place in the World Cup fifteen. Kambli returned for the first three one-day tournaments after the World Cup in August-September 1999. But comeback # 8 was also ephemeral. The third and decisive game against the West Indies in the DMC Cup in Toronto on September 14 was his last appearance for India. Indeed the current period of exile has been Kambli's longest, lasting more than a year. A certain gentleman once wrote about a tide in the affairs of men which, taken at the flood, leads to I forget what. Kambli is on the crest of the tide now.