Dinesh Mongia (born 17 April 1977) is a former Indian

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by str ...

er and politician. Mongia has appeared in limited over internationals for India.

Domestic career

Mongia in domestic cricket career scored 8,100 runs at an average of just under 50 and his highest score being an unbeaten 308. In 2004, he signed for

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancash ...

as an overseas player when Stuart Law was injured. In 2005 he was signed by Leicestershire on a full-time contract. Mongia plays for the

Lashings World XI The Lashings World XI is a cricket team captained by the former England and Surrey fast bowler Martin Bicknell. It was formed in 1984 as a pub team but evolved into an international XI after signing Richie Richardson in 1996. Now a corporate ente ...

team. He also played for

Chandigarh Lions Chandigarh Lions was one of the nine teams in the defunct Indian Cricket League. They were one of the six founding teams and were the runners-up in the inaugural Twenty20 Championship, which was won by Chennai Superstars. The team represented Ch ...

in the now defunct

Indian Cricket League The Indian Cricket League (ICL) was a private cricket league funded by Zee Entertainment Enterprises that operated between 2007 and 2009 in India. Its two seasons included tournaments between four international teams (World XI, India, Pakistan ...

First Indian T20 cricketer

Mongia is the first Indian cricketer to play a T20 match, playing for

against Leicestershire in the 2004 Twenty20 Cup. He played for Lancashire in the

2004 County Championship The 2004 County Championship season, known as the Frizzell County Championship for sponsorship reasons, was contested through two divisions: Division One and Division Two. Each team plays all the others in their division both home and away. The to ...

International career

He made his ODI debut in 2001 against Australia without much success. However, in his fifth match, he scored his first half-century (71 off 75 balls) against England. In 2002, almost a year after his debut, he picked up his first and only century (an unbeaten 159 off just 147 balls against

Zimbabwe Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and ...

) to win the

Man of the Match In team sport, a player of the match or man of the match or woman of the match award is often given to the most outstanding player in a particular match. This can be a player from either team, although the player is generally chosen from the winn ...

award. He was also named the Man of the Series in that tour. Suspicions remained, however, that kinks in his technique could be exposed on more challenging tracks abroad, and indifferent displays in England resulted in him being relegated to a bit-part role in the tours that followed. He forced his way back into the

2003 Cricket World Cup The 2003 ICC Cricket World Cup was the eighth Cricket World Cup, organised by the International Cricket Council (ICC). It was co-hosted by South Africa, Zimbabwe and Kenya from 9 February to 23 March 2003. This edition of the World Cup was the ...

squad, where India lost the final against Australia. But after a string of below-par performances, he was dropped from the Indian side in April 2005. He was again selected in the Indian team in 2006 for the Tri-Series in Sri Lanka. However, the tournament was affected by the pull out of the third team, South Africa, due to a bomb explosion in Colombo, and by incessant rain. Instead, Mongia got an opportunity in the September 2006 tri-series against Australia and West Indies in Malaysia, where he made an unbeaten 68 in the final group game against Australia, although India lost the game and were unable to reach the final.

Politics

Mongia joined

Bharatiya Janata Party The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; ; ) is a political party in India, and one of the two major Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. Since 2014, it has been the ruling political party in India under Narendra Mod ...

in December 2021, ahead of the

2022 Punjab Legislative Assembly election Legislative Assembly elections were held in Punjab on 20 February 2022 to elect the 117 members of the 16th Assembly of the Punjab Legislative Assembly. The votes were counted and the results were declared on 10 March 2022. The Aam Aadmi P ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mongia, Dinesh Indian cricketers India One Day International cricketers India Twenty20 International cricketers 1977 births Living people Punjab, India cricketers Leicestershire cricketers Lancashire cricketers North Zone cricketers Staffordshire cricketers India Blue cricketers Bharatiya Janata Party politicians from Punjab