<p class="p1 ft0">Cricket has been a gentleman&#8217;s game for close to 150 years now since the first-ever Test match between Australia and England was played. In this time, we have seen many players who have inscribed their names in history books and in the hearts of millions of people.</p><p class="p3 ft0">Generation after generation, the sport has created stalwarts and giant ambassadors from various countries. However, there remains to be a sea of players who have always flown under the radar, with their performances overshadowed by other more talked about personality&#8217;s exploits.</p><p class="p5 ft0">However, without these players&#8217; contribution and their relentless selflessness to the team&#8217;s cause, cricket would&#8217;ve been a much lesser game than what it is today.</p><h3 class="p6 ft0">Here&#8217;s a look at the most underrated XI of international cricket:</h3><h3 class="p7 ft0">1. Tamim Iqbal</h3><figure id="attachment_341883" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-341883" style="width: 640px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" class="size-full wp-image-341883" src="https://media.crictracker.com/media/attachments/Tamim-Iqbal.jpg" alt="Tamim Iqbal" width="640" height="400" sizes="(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px"><figcaption id="caption-attachment-341883" class="wp-caption-text">Tamim Iqbal. (Photo Source: Twitter)</figcaption></figure><p class="p8 ft0">The exponential growth of Bangladesh cricket has been talked about a lot since Tamim Iqbal&#8217;s debut in 2007, and very rare players have had as big a hand in their growth as this Bangladesh opener. His scores of 53 and 84 in his test debut in 2008 against a very disciplined Kiwi attack, doesn&#8217;t hold much significance as the Asian team was clinically defeated in a three day drubbing.</p><p class="p10 ft1">While Bangladesh now have a side with several fine players, including Shakib Al Hasan, Mushfiqur Rahim, and Mustafizur Rahman, at the time of Iqbal&#8217;s debut, many of Bangladesh&#8217;s players were struggling to fulfil their potential. In those times, he would be Bangladesh&#8217;s most consistent player at the top, providing his team with solid foundations for the likes of Shakib Al Hasan and Mushfiqur Rahim to feast on a bowling attack that was weared out and had suffered a dent in their morale long before the middle order batsmen had made their way to the crease, in the hands of Tamim Iqbal.</p><p class="p12 ft1">Iqbal perhaps does not possess quite the same level of talent as the likes of Al Hasan, Rahim, and Rahman, which may explain why he does not receive the same level of admiration of some of his fellow countrymen. But he has made the most of his talent, and subsequently has more Test runs than Al Hasan and Rahim, despite having debuted after them. In 58 test matches for the tigers, Tamim Iqbal has scored 4327 runs at an average just a shade under 40, maintaining a healthy strike rate of 56.58, much more than his more recognised contemporaries.</p>

<p class="p14 ft0">In 201 ODI matches, he&#8217;s scored 6871 runs at a strike rate of 77.88 and at an average above 35. It is also worth noting that Iqbal is only 30, and may still break many more batting records for Bangladesh, setting up an example for the future generations to follow.</p><h3 class="p6 ft0">2. Mark Waugh</h3><figure id="attachment_228614" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-228614" style="width: 640px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" class="size-full wp-image-228614" src="https://media.crictracker.com/media/attachments/Mark-Waugh-and-Steve-Waugh.jpg" alt="Mark Waugh and Steve Waugh" width="640" height="400" sizes="(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px"><figcaption id="caption-attachment-228614" class="wp-caption-text">Mark Waugh and Steve Waugh. (Photo Source: Getty Images)</figcaption></figure><p class="p16 ft1">Nicknamed “Afghan” because he was overshadowed by his brother Steve Waugh and became the “Forgotten Waugh”, Mark Edward Waugh is one of the most charismatic and gifted stroke maker to have ever played the game. He had the ability to drive, pull, flick, cut and loft the ball, having all the shots in the book, executing them with consummate ease.</p><p class="p18 ft1">Apart from his batting, Waugh was a decent off-spinner and a spectacular slip fielder. Regarded as one of the best of all time in the slip cordon, holding on to so many of Warne&#8217;s and McGrath&#8217;s scalps, he held the record for taking the highest number of catches as a fielder in test matches till India’s Rahul Dravid broke it.</p><p class="p19 ft1">Having scored over 8029 test runs and 8500 runs in ODIs, Mark Waugh is one of the most underrated batsmen in the Aussie line-up that had the likes of Matthew Hayden, Steve Waugh, Ricky Ponting, Adam Gilchrist etc overshadowing him throughout his career.</p><p class="p20 ft0">But his contributions in all ways must not go without being remembered that set up so many wins for the Aussies in their golden period where they won literally everything.</p><h3 class="p6 ft0">3. Rahul Dravid</h3><figure id="attachment_340610" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-340610" style="width: 640px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" class="size-full wp-image-340610" src="https://media.crictracker.com/media/attachments/Rahul-Dravid.jpg" alt="Rahul Dravid" width="640" height="400" sizes="(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px"><figcaption id="caption-attachment-340610" class="wp-caption-text">Rahul Dravid. (Photo credit should read Alessandro Abbonizio/AFP/Getty Images)</figcaption></figure><p class="p21 ft1">One of the most underrated players in the Indian cricket team when Sachin Tendulkar was at its peak, Rahul Dravid&#8217;s innumerable saviour acts for India with the bat in the toughest of conditions around the world have not grabbed enough eyeballs.</p>

<p class="p22 ft1">Sachin Tendulkar&#8217;s extraordinary batting skills overshadowed an otherwise ‘most dependable’ batsman of the then era. Due to the overwhelming media attention entirely on Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid was left out of the glamour and the hype that surrounded the maestro.</p><p class="p23 ft1">Dravid’s easy-go-nature and simplicity were unmatched in the team, he quietly scored more than 13000 runs in test matches and almost 11000 runs in ODIs. He was not only the underrated batsman but also fielder who holds the record of having the most number of catches in test cricket.</p><h3 class="p24 ft0">4. Shivnarine Chanderpaul</h3><figure id="attachment_329854" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-329854" style="width: 640px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" class="size-full wp-image-329854" src="https://media.crictracker.com/media/attachments/Shivnarine-Chanderpaul.jpg" alt="Shivnarine Chanderpaul" width="640" height="400" sizes="(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px"><figcaption id="caption-attachment-329854" class="wp-caption-text">Shivnarine Chanderpaul. (Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images)</figcaption></figure><p class="p25 ft1">Speaking of underrated cricketers, one cannot find a better name than Shivnarine Chanderpaul. Chanderpaul, who has been the mainstay of West Indies’ batting line-up for almost two decades, after making his debut in 1994. In 164 test matches, the Caribbean player mustered 11,867 runs, belonging to the elite club of players maintaining their average above 50 throughout their prolonged career.</p><p class="p14 ft0">His tally of 41 tons and 125 half-centuries speaks volumes of his calibre at the international level. As Indian great Sachin Tendulkar prepared for his 200th and farewell Test, Shivnarine Chanderpaul also quietly went about gearing up for what was his 150th Test when the two sides faced off at the Wankhede Stadium on November 2013.</p><p class="p28 ft1">If this doesn&#8217;t say much about how this batting great&#8217;s career achievements were overshadowed and gone unnoticed by everything and everyone else around his disciplined stay at the top, we don&#8217;t know what else will. For all his services to the Caribbean team, he was subjected to needless pressure by the administration and eventually bid goodbye to international cricket in January 2016 without getting a farewell match.</p><h3 class="p24 ft0">5. Stephen Fleming</h3><figure id="attachment_150862" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-150862" style="width: 640px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" class="size-full wp-image-150862" src="https://media.crictracker.com/media/attachments/Stephen-Fleming.jpg" alt="Stephen Fleming" width="640" height="400" sizes="(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px"><figcaption id="caption-attachment-150862" class="wp-caption-text">Stephen Fleming. (Photo by Scott Barbour &#8211; CA/Cricket Australia/Getty Images)</figcaption></figure><p class="p29 ft0">Former New Zealand skipper Stephan Fleming is the greatest ever player to have led the Blackcaps in International cricket. He is well known for his shrewd captaincy skills than as a batsman. Fleming was made the captain for the New Zealand side when he was just 23 years old and he repaid the faith the board had in him.</p>

<p class="p20 ft1">In a few years during his tenure, he became one of the most successful captains of New Zealand. He reads the game well and has a good tactic as a skipper. He is one of the most underrated captains the world has ever seen. Many cricket experts now describe him as simply the “best captain in world cricket” and “one of the two true leaders in the cricketing world”.</p><p class="p20 ft1">His ability to understand the game and strategic deployments simply made him exceptional, but he was away from the limelight during his time in cricket.</p><h3 class="p7 ft0">6. Fawad Alam</h3><figure id="attachment_257820" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-257820" style="width: 640px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" class="size-full wp-image-257820" src="https://media.crictracker.com/media/attachments/Fawad-Alam.jpg" alt="Fawad Alam" width="640" height="400" sizes="(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px"><figcaption id="caption-attachment-257820" class="wp-caption-text">Fawad Alam. (Photo by Tom Shaw/Getty Images)</figcaption></figure><p class="p32 ft0">Fawad Alam grabbed everyone’s attention with his awe-inspiring performances in the domestic level. During his early years, he was touted as the “next big thing” of Pakistan cricket. This immensely talented left-hander had a promising bright future, but destiny has been very unfair to him. He has got dropped from the Pakistani squad very often and has got very limited chances to prove his outstanding talent. Pakistan Cricket Board never properly utilised this naturally talented all-rounder.</p><p class="p34 ft2">Fawad Alam is a very versatile batsman and plays at whichever position assigned to him in the batting order. Fawad Alam has been Pakistan’s most indispensable players in the past few years. In the first seven innings of his ODI career, Fawad Alam batted at all positions from number five to nine. Fawad Alam’s mental strength, athletic fielding has been a very valuable asset for Pakistan team as they have always had a dearth of a world-class fielder.</p><p class="p34 ft2">He has also been vital in raising the fitness as well as the fielding standards in Pakistan. As he would turn 34 later this year, he would certainly believe he was hard done by many things outside his control. He was not given his justified amount of time at the top, while his first ball duck against Sri Lanka in his debut innings didn&#8217;t help his cause either.</p>

<p class="p36 ft1">However, with a first-class record that yielded 11,441 runs at an average of above 56, Fawad Alam would definitely go down as one of the most underrated batsmen of all time, given his depleted amount of opportunities that he was provided with.</p><h3 class="p7 ft0">7. Mark Boucher</h3><figure id="attachment_261869" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-261869" style="width: 640px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" class="size-full wp-image-261869" src="https://media.crictracker.com/media/attachments/Mark-Boucher.jpg" alt="Mark Boucher" width="640" height="400" sizes="(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px"><figcaption id="caption-attachment-261869" class="wp-caption-text">Mark Boucher of South Africa. (Photo by Gallo Images/Getty Images)</figcaption></figure><p class="p37 ft0">A complete wicket-keeper who could keep wickets with equal finesse to all kinds of bowlers, Mark Boucher, without a doubt one of the greatest wicketkeepers of all time.The Proteas wicketkeeper-batsman holds the record for most number of dismissals in tests by 532 catches and 23 stumpings in 147 Tests.</p><p class="p37 ft0">Besides being a natural behind the stumps, keeping with ease, Boucher had been a more than handy customer lower-order with an average in excess of 30 across the formats, adding runs on a regular basis on each visit to the crease, also performing under pressure and in the most trying conditions.</p><p class="p39 ft1">His knock of 43-ball-50 in the record 434-run chase against Australia at the Wanderers in 2006, dismantling the potent Aussie bowling will remain etched in the record books as not only one of the greatest matches of all time, but also a special knock for the Protea keeper.</p><p class="p40 ft0">After being severely injured by a bail in his right eye during a warm-up in 2012, Boucher had to unfortunately announce his retirement from all forms of international cricket. For all his credentials to the game, Mark Boucher was not as hailed as his longtime opponent Adam Gilchrist and was underappreciated.</p><h3 class="p14 ft0">8. Chris Woakes</h3><figure id="attachment_226621" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-226621" style="width: 640px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" class="size-full wp-image-226621" src="https://media.crictracker.com/media/attachments/Chris-Woakes-1.jpg" alt="Chris Woakes" width="640" height="400" sizes="(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px"><figcaption id="caption-attachment-226621" class="wp-caption-text">Chris Woakes of England celebrates the wicket of Colin Munro. (Photo by Anthony Au-Yeung/Getty Images)</figcaption></figure><p class="p42 ft1">Among all those stars in the English side capable of winning matches single-handedly in white-ball cricket, Chris Woakes doesn’t precisely get the credit he deserves. The 30-year-old from Birmingham has become one of the finest bowlers around the world in the last four years and despite all the performances, he still remains underrated. In 98 ODI matches, Chris Woakes has picked up 142 wickets at an average just above 30.</p><p class="p43 ft0">In the test format, he&#8217;s accounted for 72 scalps in 27 matches as his best figures in a match reads 11 wickets for just 102 runs. He is a capable batsman lower down the order. With more than 1000 runs with four centuries and a century to his name in the longest format, his capabilities with the bat in hand often don&#8217;t get the credit it deserves.</p>

<p class="p45 ft0">In one of the recent victorious World Cup campaign, England had even promoted him up the order to number 3 when neither the target nor the opponent bowling attack was intimidating. England had ticked all their boxes perfectly for the 15-man squad and even if their top order failed, they have enough depth to help the side get to a decent total 9 times out of 10.</p><p class="p47 ft0">With Ben Stokes and Moeen Ali hammering away all the limelight, Chris Woakes is perhaps their most underrated all-rounder.</p><h3 class="p6 ft0">9. Rangana Herath</h3><figure id="attachment_188938" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-188938" style="width: 640px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" class="size-full wp-image-188938" src="https://media.crictracker.com/media/attachments/Rangana-Herath.jpg" alt="Rangana Herath" width="640" height="400" sizes="(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px"><figcaption id="caption-attachment-188938" class="wp-caption-text">Rangana Herath of Sri Lanka. (Photo by Dave Thompson/Getty Images)</figcaption></figure><p class="p48 ft1">With more than 520 wickets in international cricket Sri Lanka’s Rangana Herath is one of the greatest spin bowlers in the history of the game. The 40-year-old has been his country’s biggest match-winner with the ball after the retirement of the great Muttiah Muralitharan.</p><p class="p49 ft1">Despite his numerous achievements and invaluable contributions to Srilankan cricket, Herath for some reason have never got the appreciation he deserves. Getting better with age, Herath is a perfect role model for younger generations to follow.</p><p>Unfortunately, due to Muralitharan&#8217;s rise, he couldn&#8217;t get a consistent opportunity and was always an underrated cricketer throughout his career. But when the left-arm spinner got his chance, he didn&#8217;t leave a chance to shine at the highest level.</p><h3 class="p50 ft0">10. Kyle Mills</h3><figure id="attachment_347937" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-347937" style="width: 640px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" class="size-full wp-image-347937" src="https://media.crictracker.com/media/attachments/Kyle-Mills.jpg" alt="Kyle Mills" width="640" height="400" sizes="(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px"><figcaption id="caption-attachment-347937" class="wp-caption-text">Kyle Mills. (Photo by INDRANIL MUKHERJEE/AFP/Getty Images)</figcaption></figure><p class="p51 ft0">The most underrated cricketers tend to be the unflashy ones. Not much to see in the way of cool haircuts, novelty tattoos and quirky soundbites from post-match interviews. If anything, those tend to be the overrated ones. This next one will be probably best be remembered for just having been born with curly hair, which he normally wore quite long. But he deserves to be remembered for so much more.</p><p class="p12 ft2">Who were the great New Zealand bowlers in ODIs? The canny Daniel Vettori, the lightning-quick Shane Bond, the incomparable Richard Hadlee. How about the strangely effective Chris Harris, the swing sensation that is Trent Boult or the supremely gifted Chris Cairns? You could make a case for any of them but it’s very easy to forget Kyle Mills.</p>

<p class="p54 ft1">And it’s even easier to forget that for quite a long time he was the number 1 ranked ODI bowler in the world. He never really got to grips with the demands of Test cricket and probably had neither the pace nor the varieties to master T20 bowling. But he loved ODIs and for a long time was as good as anyone. Well, obviously given that he was officially the best of the lot ranking-wise for a period and that for year after year, he was an almost permanent fixture in the Top 10 list of ODI bowlers.</p><p class="p56 ft1">He was also a rare case of a feisty New Zealander cricketer. It got him into hot water on a number of occasions and some would say taking on Graeme Smith face-to-face isn’t a particularly good idea. But hey, there’s also something to be said for not backing down in those circumstances.</p><p class="p57 ft0">Sadly for Mills, he always seemed to get injured at the wrong times and one problem or another deprived him of playing more international cricket. But he still finished as New Zealand’s second-highest wicket-taker ever in ODIs with 240 wickets from 170 games. Only Daniel Vettori got more.</p><h3 class="p59 ft0">11. Morne Morkel</h3><figure id="attachment_236343" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-236343" style="width: 640px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" class="size-full wp-image-236343" src="https://media.crictracker.com/media/attachments/Morne-Morkel-1.jpg" alt="Morne Morkel" width="640" height="400" sizes="(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px"><figcaption id="caption-attachment-236343" class="wp-caption-text">Morne Morkel of the Proteas. (Photo by Lee Warren/Gallo Images/Getty Images)</figcaption></figure><p class="p60 ft0">The man with a tall, sleak stature from South Africa had been one of their major pacers with the ball for more than a decade. With 309 wickets from 86 test matches, and 188 wickets in the 50 over format, Morne Morkel has been one of South Africa&#8217;s most potent bowlers for a long time.</p><p class="p62 ft1">Morne Morkel would find himself alongside many other great cricketers who have not got the appreciation they deserve for some reason or the other. Morkel has also gone under the radar and not quite gained the limelight like his other teammates.</p><p class="p63 ft0">Following his retirement from international cricket in March 2018, Morkel had signed a two-year contract with Surrey as a Kolpak registered player.</p><p><strong><em>~Written by Dwaipayan Mukherjee</em></strong></p>

These players never got the deserved limelight but they always did the job for the team.

The most underrated XI of all time in cricket

Here's a look at the most underrated XI of international cricket: These players always did the job for their team but never got