Devendra Bundela:
The classic vintage cricketer dominated domestic cricket for more than two decades. Devendra Bundela is among those names who’d thrive in the presence of the local cheers and their pals patting their back when they return, triumphed. He is one of those cricketers whose record one won’t find easily on either of the famous sports pages.
Bundela stepped into the cricketing world around the times when the giants like Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly, VVS Laxman and Virender Sehwag delivered for India. But he never gave up, Bundela kept giving his best in the domestic set-up.
The experienced cricketer has played a total of 129 first-class matches where he ended up scoring 8,035 runs with 25 centuries and 41 half-centuries. After playing for about 20-plus years, Bundela retired from the first-class cricket in March 2018. Bundela became captain of Madhya Pradesh in 2010 Ranji Trophy and was promoted to Ranji Trophy Super League next season. In November 2016, he made the record of highest Ranji Trophy appearances.
However, these many laurels couldn’t help him to make it to the national team.
According to him, “I think if you have the talent and you work hard, you can be successful. This positive approach is very important. But I am saying that in cricket, luck is very important. The right chance at the right time is important. India is a huge country. Sometimes, you can play and sometimes you cannot. I think it’s very important to perform and play with honesty and I have done that.”