Birthday special: Jason Gillespie – One of Australia’s most under-rated bowlers

Former Australian pacer Jason Gillespie can be termed as one of the most under-rated bowlers to ever play for Australia. Born on April 19, 1975, Gillespie played his debut match for Australia against West Indies in November 1996. In the same year, the right-arm pacer made his ODI debut against Sri Lanka. He played his first and last T20I match against England in June 2005.

The express pacer also provided the ideal partner for veteran Glenn McGrath as the duo became the most successful Australian bowling partnership of all time. However, Gillespie’s career was marked with injuries and he was in and out of the squad many times. Gillespie made a name for himself, becoming one of the fastest bowlers in the Australian domestic circuit.

Gillespie’s career ended surprisingly after just one bad season in 2005-06. Much to the surprise of everyone, Gillespie was Man of the Series in his last assignment in Bangladesh.

Talking about his international career numbers, the right-arm pacer represented Australia in 71 Test matches in which he scalped a total of 259 wickets at an economy rate of 2.85. In ODIs, he played 97 matches and took 142 wickets at an economy rate of 4.21. As mentioned above, Gillespie played only one T20I match for Australia against England and took one wicket, but gave away 49 runs in his four-over quota. Gillespie bagged 11 five-wicket hauls in his international career.

With the bat, the 46-year-old scored 1218 and 289 runs in Tests and ODIs respectively. He also has scored a double century. After his cricketing career, Gillespie coached several teams in the Australian domestic circuit and also holds experience in coaching the English county, Essex. Gillespie’s efforts might not have been acknowledged properly, but he was one of the most dangerous bowlers of his era.