S. Srisanth is a young and talented Indian cricketer. Popularly known as Sreesanth, he is an upcoming talent with loads of untapped potential and is Team India's new speedster. His full name is Shanthakumaran Sreesanth and he was born on February 6, 1983, in Kothamangalam, Kerala, India.
Nicknamed 'Gopu', Sreesanth is well-educated, he is a student of psychology. Besides his mother-tongue Malayalam, he can speak English, Hindi and Tamil as well. With a hidden talent in break dancing, he was a national champion whilst in eighth grade.A leg-spinner in his early days however he switched to fast bowling later on. He was elected for the MRF Pace Foundation in
Chennai, which put his cricketing career into high gear.
He is a right-arm fast-medium bowler known for his fiery pace, deadly yorkers and the ability to swing the ball and obtain movement off the seam. Although some times proved to be expensive, once he finds his rhythm he can be a devastating wicket-taking bowler. He is also a right-handed tail-ender batsman. Sreesanth began his career playing domestic cricket and is nicknamed 'Prince of Hat-tricks' by teammates because of his exploits at club and first-class level. He performed brilliantly in tournaments like Duleep Trophy, Challenger Trophy, and the Ranji Trophy in which he became the first bowler from Kerala to take a hat-trick. Nursing a hamstring injury which kept him out of cricket for a long period, Sreesanth bounced back and his performances soon saw him selected in the national squad. The major teams that Sreesanth represents are India, Kerala and Kerala Under-19's.
Sreesanth's Test debut was in the first test against England in 2005, held at the VCA Stadium in Nagpur. Since then he has played 8 Tests, scoring 126 runs and taking 37 wickets, with a career best of 5/40. Sometimes, being the leading pace bowler of India, Sreesanth has done exceptionally well on the tour of West Indies and the 2006 tour of South Africa, where his Man of the Match winning display of 5/40 led to India's first win on South African soil. Sreesanth made his One Day International debut in 2005 against Sri Lanka in Nagpur, and since then has played in 27 ODI's taking 35 wickets, his career's best wicket haul being 6/55 against England in the final match at Indore in which he was also awarded the Man of the Match Award.
Sreesanth was also fined for his breach of the ICC advertising logo policy and many of his on-field antics including the dramatic sending off of Hashim Amla, and his jig after hitting pacer Andre Nel for a six, deemed as un professional. However, he is a promising cricket star who can go a long way in Indian cricket.
