IN REMEMBRANCE - INDIAN TEST CRICKETERS

🏏🏏 M. K. MANTRI (1 Sep 1921 - 23 May 2014) India's oldest Test cricketer at the time of his demise, Nasik born Madhav Krishnaji Mantri, the right-handed wicket-keeper batsman of the Bombay team of the 1940s and 1950s, is regarded as one of the finest openers Indian cricket has had... The Brabourne Stadium debutant of December 1951, Mantri played just the four Tests in his career - 3 against England, and his final against Pakistan at Dacca in 1955. While the 67 Test runs, with 39 as highest, 8 catches and a stumping can be termed ordinary, it was his 4403 runs with 7 hundreds - a double included - and 26 fifties, 136 catches and 56 stumpings from 95 first class games that made him a class apart... Captaining Bombay to an emphatic 531 run victory over Holkar in the 1952 Ranji Trophy finals, with individual scores of 94 and 152, earned Mantri a place for the June 1952 England tour. As luck would have it, Mantri was part of the top-order collapse at Headi...

A YEAR'S MIND 🏏🏏 SYED ABID ALI (9 Sep 1941 – 12 Mar 2025) A member of India's first wins in the Caribbean and New Zealand, Hyderabad born Syed Abid Ali belonged to a generation which included some of the finest cricketing brains and exponents like Ghulam Ahmed, Mansoor Ali Khan of Pataudi, M. L. Jaisimha, Abbas Ali Baig and P. Krishnamurthy, to name a few... Arguably one of the most natural cricketers Hyderabad ever produced, Abid Ali excelled in every department of the game, always giving more than a hundred percent, with an untiring lion's heart perfectly befitting the grace of the sport... An embodiment of versatility, Abid Ali had a dream Test debut Down Under at the Adelaide Oval in 1967. Opening the bowling he picked up 6 wickets for 55, which included greats such as Bob Simpson, Bill Lawry, Bob Cowper, and Barry Jarman... Also, Abid Ali’s innings of 78 and 81 in the same series underlined his potent...

🏏🏏 S. S. NAIK (21 Feb 1945 – 5 Apr 2023) Credited for scoring India's first boundary in an ODI - against England at Leeds in 1974 - Bombay's prolific opener Sudhir Sakharam Naik was distinctly unlucky to have played just three Tests... Regarded as an astute captain, Naik's purple patch was probably when he led Bombay to the Ranji Trophy title in 1970–71, in the absence of the regular players who were doing duty for India in the West Indies... Making his debut in England in 1974, 141 runs from 6 Test innings, with 77 as highest, and 38 from 2 ODIs are false indicators of Naik's batting prowess when compared to his domestic record. His 4376 runs from 85 games with 7 hundreds and 27 fifties, 200* highest, and 42 catches tell another story... While it must have been heartbreaking for a promising cricketer to realize his international curtains down in a span of just 6 months, Naik continued to contribute as much as he could to the game as a player, coach, selec...

🏏🏏 P. K. SEN (31 May 1926 – 27 Jan 1970) The first regular Test wicketkeeper and also the first Test cricketer from Bengal, Comilla (now in Bangladesh) born right-handed Probir Kumar "Khokan" Sen played 14 Tests for India...  Sen made his Test debut in January 1948 against Australia, at Melbourne. He played his last Test in December 1952 against Pakistan at Calcutta... Nothing exceptional to show with the bat in Tests, Sen scored 165 runs @11.78, 25 as his highest, but his acrobatic agility behind the stumps earned him 31 dismissals - 20 caught and 11 stumped... Sen's first class record (1943-44 to 1957-58) was better, scoring 2580 runs @23.24 from 82 games, 3 hundreds and 11 fifties with 168 as highest, 108 catches and 36 stumpings, 7 wickets including a hat trick... Sen has a few records to his credit. He was the only Indian wicket-keeper to have stumped Don Bradman, in a four-day match against South Australia in 1947–48. His purple patch was i...

🏏🏏 P. G. JOSHI (7 Oct 1926 – 8 Jan 1987) Baroda born Padmanabh Govind "Nana" Joshi was a right-handed wicket-keeper batsman who played for India between 1951 and 1960... Joshi arrived on the scene at a time when India had three or four wicket keepers more or less of the same class. Thus being in and out of the eleven, Joshi played just 12 Tests in a career which lasted for almost a decade... Joshi made his Test debut in November 1951 against England at Delhi, and played his last in December 1960 against Pakistan at Bombay.... In 12 Tests  Joshi scored 207 runs @10.89, just one half century 52* - in his last Test innings - as his highest, 18 catches and 9 stumpings... Representing Maharashtra from 1946/47 to 1964/65 Joshi played 78 first class matches scoring 1710 runs @16.93, the lone 100* as highest, 8 fifties, 120 catches and 61 stumpings... Joshi was brilliant in the first innings of his debut Test, but his errors in the second helped England save the...

🏏🏏 S. NYALCHAND (14 Sep 1919 - 4 Jan 1997) Shah Nyalchand was another cricketer who played just the debut Test for India. A left-arm seamer who excelled on matting surfaces, Nyalchand was an impressive performer in the domestic circuit... Dhrangadhra (Gujarat) born Nyalchand had a first class career spanning almost a quarter of a century. Beginning from the 1939/40 season representing Western India, Nyalchand went on to play for Gujarat and Saurashtra teams till the end of the  1963/64 season... None other than Sir Frank Worrell had called Nyalchand “the King of matting wickets.” Despite placid wickets of those days, and Indian fast bowlers being allrounders, the 5'7" Nyalchand excelled with his left-arm seam bowling in 57 games, 29 for Saurashtra. He finished with 235 wickets @22.57 with a five-wicket haul 15 times and a ten-wicket haul 6 times, his best being 7/32... Nyalchand's only Test was against Pakistan in October 1952, at Lucknow. Though unfortunate ...