In a way, Chris Rogers belongs to the same club as Stuart MacGill and Rangana Herath! Despite having talent and good domestic performances, they always remained under the shadow of great players and as a result they never got enough chances at international level during the peak of their careers. It was very difficult for any youngster to break into an Australian batting line up that had likes of Langer, Hayden, Ponting, Martyn, Hussey, Clarke, Gilchrist. There was no surprise Rogers had to wait for his opportunity to play for Australia till 2008.
A veteran of First-Class cricket, Rogers has a stellar First-Class record. Despite being colour bilnd and short sighted, Rogers has over 25000 First-Class runs at an average of close to 50. After playing for Western Australia for 10 years, he moves to Victoria in 2008. In English County he has played for Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Northamptonshire, Middlesex and Somerset. His highest score of 319 came for Northamptonshire against Gloucestershire in 2006. In his First Class career, he has scored 76 hundreds and 122 half centuries.
Rogers played a test against India in 2008 at Perth, but had to wait for another five years to get another opportunity. At 35 in July 2013, Rogers was picked as a specialist opener after Australia”s 4-0 drubbing in India. Since then Rogers” career took off for short period of time. His hundreds at Chester-le-Street showed selectors that he still had what it takes to don the baggy green. Rogers was instrumental in Australia”s 5-0 victory in Ashes in 2013, very often playing second fiddle to David Warner, watching Warner do all the damage from other end. He got 2 hundreds in the series at Melbourne and Sydney. He also got a hundred in Port Elizabeth in a losing cause. He scored 6 fifties in a row against the visiting Indian team during the summer of 2014-15. He scored his last hundred at his County Home Ground, The Lord”s in Australia”s thumping 415 run win over England.
Never considered as ODI material, Rogers still has decent List A record. An average of 36 with 5 hundreds from 167 make a decent if not impressive reading. He never donned colour clothing for Australia. Rogers retired from Cricket in 2015 playing only 25 tests. A career that would have flourished had it got the number of opportunities it deserved!!
– by Atharva Apte
