Decline of the one-day specialist

As little as five years ago several ice-cool finishers, ruthless hitters, and death-bowling experts - read Michael Bevan, Ricardo Powell and Ian Harvey among others - had carved a niche for themselves in one-day cricket but couldn't cement their place in the Test sides. However, as the tempo of Test cricket and the importance of being multi-faceted increased, allrounders like, Shahid Afridi, Paul Collingwood and Andrew Symonds became part of their country's Test plans. This week's list is on one-day specialists who didn't make the transition to Test cricket and those who did.

Symonds played the most ODIs - 94 - before making his Test debut against Sri Lanka at Galle in 2004, six years after he played his first one-dayer. However, Robin Singh's career was the most skewed in favour of one-day cricket. While he performed the role of a middle-order batsman who could bowl medium-pace in 136 ODIs, Robin's first Test was also his last. He went wicketless in that solitary game against Zimbabwe- ten years after his one-day debut - scored only 27 runs but took five catches.

Most ODIs played before Test debut

Player	ODI debut	Test debut	ODIs		Career Tests	ODIs
A Symonds (Aust)	10 Nov 1998	8 Mar 2004	94		10	146
AC Gilchrist (Aust)	25 Oct 1996	5 Nov 1999	76		85	242
Yuvraj Singh (India)	3 Oct 2000	16 Oct 2003	73		19	155
Shahid Afridi (Pak)	2 Oct 1996	22 Oct 1998	66		26	227
RR Singh (India)	11 Mar 1989	7 Oct 1998	60		1	136
GR Larsen (NZ)	1 Mar 1990	2 Jun 1994	55		8	121
BB McCullum (NZ)	17 Jan 2002	10 Mar 2004	48		23	84
UDU Chandana (SL)	14 Apr 1994	12 Mar 1999	47		16	146
SB Styris (NZ)	5 Nov 1999	28 Jun 2002	45		27	116
PD Collingwood (Eng)	7 Jun 2001	2 Dec 2003	42		15	97

Among the current players in the table above - Adam Gilchrist, Yuvraj Singh, Brendon McCullum, Scott Styris - have secured Test berths while Collingwood, Afridi and Symonds have, despite tasting varying degrees of success, not yet sealed their spots in the longer format. The trend indicates that there are fewer one-day specialists around these days.

The best examples of current ODI specialists are Vikram Solanki and Dinesh Mongia who have played 51 one-dayers but not a single Test. However, both are far from being permanent names in their squads. Mongia's recall to the Indian squad for the tri-series in Malaysia and the Champions Trophy after more than a year's hiatus gives him an opportunity to break Ian Harvey's somewhat unwanted record of playing 73 ODIs and no Tests.

Most ODIs played without playing a Test (qualification: excluding non-Test countries)

Player	ODI debut	Last ODI	ODIs
IJ Harvey (Aust)	4 Dec 1997	29 May 2004	73
VS Solanki (Eng)	23 Jan 2000	1 Jul 2006	51
D Mongia (India)	28 Mar 2001	17 Apr 2005	51
S Lee (Aust)	17 Dec 1995	3 Apr 2001	45
CJ Nevin (NZ)	1 Mar 2000	15 Nov 2003	37
R Telemachus (SAf)	3 Apr 1998	12 Mar 2006	36
DN Crookes (SAf)	16 Oct 1994	31 Mar 2000	32
DJ Callaghan (SAf)	7 Dec 1992	14 Apr 2000	29
Minhajul Abedin (Bang)	31 Mar 1986	31 May 1999	27
JP Maher (Aust)	14 Jan 1998	9 Nov 2003	26

Bevan's illustrious one-day career lasted ten years while his stop-start Test career spanned just four years. In his debut series, in Pakistan in 1994-95, Bevan topped Australia's Test averages (Justin Langer played one innings and scored 69) and scored one less than Michael Slater who was their highest run-scorer. After that promising start Bevan passed fifty just twice in his next 26 innings and it was his apparent weakness against the short ball that resulted in him being confined to ODIs after 1998, where the playing conditions make this less of a problem.

Biggest difference between ODIs played and Tests played (qualification: Maximum 30 Tests)

Player	Test span	ODI span		Tests	ODIs	Diff
CZ Harris (NZ)	1992-2002	1990-2004		23	250	227
MG Bevan (Aust)	1994-1998	1994-2004		18	232	214
Shahid Afridi (Asia/ICC/Pak)	1998-2006	1996-2006		26	227	201
A Jadeja (India)	1992-2000	1992-2000		15	196	181
Aaqib Javed (Pak)	1989-1998	1988-1998		22	163	141
AB Agarkar (India)	1998-2006	1998-2006		26	165	139
A Symonds (Aust)	2004-2006	1998-2006		10	146	136
Yuvraj Singh (India)	2003-2006	2000-2006		19	155	136
RR Singh (India)	1998-1998	1989-2001		1	136	135
UDU Chandana (SL)	1999-2005	1994-2005		16	146	130

Incidentally Harvey's 73 ODIs without playing a Test ia nearly matched by Mark Butcher who's played 71 Tests without playing a one-dayer. Among players since 1971 when the age of ODIs began, Australia's Jim Higgs and Colin Miller are a distant second and third with 22 and 18 Tests,. For current players Wasim Jaffer is closest with 14 Tests, and Monty Panesar has already clocked up 10 Tests and is likely to remain a fixture in this table as long as his batting and fielding remain at their current standard.

Most Tests played without playing a ODI (qualification: Test debut after ODIs began in 1971)

Player	Test debut	Last Test	Tests
MA Butcher (Eng)	5 Jun 1997	30 Dec 2004	71
JD Higgs (Aust)	3 Mar 1978	11 Feb 1981	22
CR Miller (Aust)	1 Oct 1998	22 Mar 2001	18
BA Pocock (NZ)	12 Nov 1993	23 Nov 1997	15
PR Sleep (Aust)	10 Mar 1979	16 Jan 1990	14
W Jaffer (India)	24 Feb 2000	2 Jul 2006	14
Inshan Ali (WI)	1 Apr 1971	6 Apr 1977	12
RR Jumadeen (WI)	20 Apr 1972	8 Feb 1979	12
Asim Kamal (Pak)	17 Oct 2003	3 Dec 2005	12
PM Such (Eng)	3 Jun 1993	9 Aug 1999	11
A Sanford (WI)	11 Apr 2002	23 Mar 2004	11
Talat Ali (Pak)	22 Dec 1972	28 Feb 1979	10
A Chopra (India)	8 Oct 2003	29 Oct 2004	10
MS Panesar (Eng)	1 Mar 2006	20 Aug 2006	10