It is a well-known fact that Mahendra Singh Dhoni outclassed many upcoming wicketkeepers for national squad in Indian cricket. One of such promising wicketkeeper is Ajay Ratra. He was one of the talented wicket keeper batsmen to feature in Indian national team. He was selected from National Cricket Academy in Bangalore.
He made his debut in the national squad in the Test series against West Indies on April 19, 2002. He scored a century with his not out innings of 115, and became the youngest wicketkeeper to score a century in tests. He also became the only second Indian wicketkeeper to hit a century overseas in Tests. He was a promising Indian wicketkeeper but got out of the team due to injury in 2002. He was later replaced by Parthiv Patel. He played a total of 6 Test matches and scored 163 runs.
In ODIs, Ratra made his debut with the England series in January 2002. He could not show his magic in ODI cricket like that of Tests and was only able to make 90 runs in 12 matches. Ratra’s career started in 2002 and ended in the same year for the national side. Once he got injured, he was replaced by Parthiv Patel and lost his place. Ratra was an aspiring Indian wicketkeeper but he was left behind Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Dinesh Karthik and Parthik Patel in the pecking order.
Although he could not achieve much in international career, he had a great first class career in cricket. He played a total of 99 matches and made more than four thousand runs. Later, he was selected as the coach for Punjab Ranji team.