Currently ranked as one of the best One-day players in the game, 30 year old Michael Bevan is by far an extremely gifted and exciting stroke player. In the offside region, his excellence is even more pronounced. A left handed batsman and slow left arm chinaman, Michael Bevan has played for South Australia, New South Wales, Yorkshire, Sussex and of course Australia.

Batting in the middle order, he is forte lies in doing both - either pushing the run-rate or preventing a total collapse. Not just that, he is also good at the quick ones and twos in the late overs of the game. He thus has made a mark as a responsible player and one on which it makes sense to depend upon. Bevan is also known for his ability to stay at the crease till the end. His high batting average of +58 is proof enough.

Bevan is however, marred by his inability to face pace over long periods. This has abbreviated his Test career. Yet, one does remember how he almost single-handedly won the Test match against the West Indies at Adelaide in 1996-97. It helped that he is a deft left-arm spinner. But, again the wrath of his inability to maintain a consistent length still loomed on him.

However, in county cricket, his impact has been enormous. His 785 runs at the Test level is far exceeded by a 4621 runs in ODIs - that sure sums up the great power of this player.

Mr. Consistent of Instant Cricket

For the die-hard Aussie cricket fans, Michael Bevan is nothing short of an enigma.

A brilliant middle order batsman who’s rated even above Sachin Tendulkar in the one dayers, a more than useful chinaman bowler with figures of 6-42 in a test match and arguably the best fielder green? That was way back in 1997-98 series against the arch-rivals South Africa.

Born in1970 in Belconnen, NSW, Bevan played his initial cricket for Southern Australia before moving on to NSW. After four years of struggle in Sheffield Shield Bevan got his big break against Pakistan on the away tour of 1994-95. And in the Australasia cup that followed, he impressed one and all with his spectacular catching and trailblazing running between the wickets.

Since Dean Jones’ time even the Aussie haven’t seen anything as fast as Michael Bevan between the 22-yards. His speed on the field prompted fellow Australian commentator David Hookes to say: “Michael Bevan versus Linford Christie would be very fair contest.”

Here was a man who could convert the ones into twos and threes into fours and an a few occasions, fives too.

He shot into fame, when he hit West Indian spinner Roger Harper straight over his head for four in the last ball of the match to clinch a thrilling win for his team in the CUB World Series match at Sydney.

Another high point of his career came when the most conservative of England counties, Yorkshire contracted him. He had a glorious English summer where he averaged a staggering 72 runs in each innings.

Equally staggering is his one-day international batting average, which reads 56.20. But his detractors are quick to point out his high number of not outs, which took care of his average.

Some experts also believe he is handicapped in situations where is team needs to score at a rapid pace. His inability to accelerate and find the boundary with regularity is still the not so visible chink in his one-day armoury. But he silenced his critics with a stupendous knock of 144 at Dhaka in the ICC Asia XI Vs the World XI.

The question in everybody’s mind is why he not fit the Aussie test XI.

The answers are not too difficult to find. An average of 30 from 30 innings in 18 tests is just not good enough for an outfit like Australia, which has players like Darren Lehman and Damien Martyn languishing on the benches.

A few glaring technical deficiencies that were exposed too soon, didn’t help. And unfortunately most of his test matches that he played were against teams like the West Indies, South Africa and Pakistan who had the pace attack to exploit his weakness against the short-pitched deliveries.

A shoulder injury in 96-97 curtailed his bowling abilities and the all rounder’s spot in the team too was gone.

Now that Australia clearly spelling out and effectively putting to practice their horses for courses policy Michael Bevan knows for himself that he doesn’t have a realistic chance of making it to the test XI. But that hasn’t in any way affected him in doing what he does best; tucking the best of bowlers foe ones and twos, relentlessly!