IN REMEMBRANCE - INDIAN TEST CRICKETERS

🏏🏏 HANUMANT SINGH (29 Mar 1939 - 29 Nov 2006) The fifth Indian Test player to score a century on debut, the diminutive and elegant right-handed wristy willow-wielder Hanumant Singh was a scion of the royal Rajput family of Banswara, inheriting the cricketing legacies of his grand uncle, the immortal KS Ranjitsinhji, and his uncle KS Duleepsinhji... Making his debut in February 1964 against England in Delhi, Hanumant Singh played 14 Tests, too few for one with talent in abundance, his last being the Bombay Test against New Zealand in 1969 which India had won... He scored a total of 686 runs @31.18, the lone hundred on debut (105) being his highest along with five half centuries, and 11 catches... His first class record is highly impressive, with 12338 runs @43.90 from 207 games, a top score of 213* with 29 hundreds and 63 fifties, 56 wickets and 110 catches... Having begun his Test career well, Hanumant Singh's inclusion for the twin tour...

🏏🏏 R. B. KENNY (29 Sep 1930 – 21 Nov 1985) The “gracefully elegant, stylish and nimble-footed right-hand batsman with an unflappable air", as a cricket historian commented of him, Bombay born Ramnath Baburao Kenny, of a slight 5'7" frame, was another star performer who failed to do full justice to his talent at the highest level... Making his Test debut on the final day of 1958 against the West Indies in Calcutta, Kenny played four more, the last being at the same venue against Australia in January 1960. His aggregate of 245 runs in five Tests @27.22, three half-tons with 62 as highest, betrayed his potential which he unfortunately did not realize. He was part of the Indian team that registered her maiden victory over Australia, the famous Jasu Patel Test at Kanpur, December 1959... His domestic record of 3,079 runs @50.47 from 59 first class games with 218 as highest which included 11 tons and 11 fifties is evidence enough for his consistency and devot...

🏏🏏 L. S. GILL (16 Dec 1909 - 19 Nov 1985) Kuala Lumpur born Lall Singh Gill was a member of India's Test cricket team on her inaugural tour of England in 1932. He was a lively right-handed batsman and an outstanding fielder... In the only Test played during the tour, batting at number eight in the first, Gill scored 15, and 29 runs in the second innings at number seven, and had a run-out and a catch to his credit... He represented India in just one more unofficial 'Test' at Bombay against Jack Ryder's Australian side in 1935-36 ... Playing for Maharaja of Patiala's XI, Southern Punjab and Hindus in the domestic circuit, Gill scored 1123 runs in 32 first class games @24.95, 107* his highest, 5 fifties and 23 catches... Gill's lone first-class hundred (107*) was in the 1935-36 Bombay Quadrangular Tournament for Hindus against Parsees at Gymkhana Ground, Bombay. Coming in at No. 8, he shared an unbeaten stand of 132 for 7th wicket...

🏏🏏 COL C. K. NAYUDU (31 Oct 1895 - 14 Nov 1967) The credit for laying a strong foundation for cricket in India goes to the Nagpur born Colonel Cottari Kanakaiya Nayudu, the person who led India on her Test debut in 1932 against England at Lords... Tall and proportionally built, Col Nayudu was an attacking right-hand batsman, right arm slow bowler and a fine fielder. He was also good at hockey and football... Col Nayudu's first class career began in 1916, playing for the Hindus in the Bombay Triangular tournament. The bright patch for Col Nayudu, and for India as well, came during the 1926 tour by the MCC when his blistering 153 in just 116 minutes impressed captain Arthur Gilligan who lobbied for India's Test baptism. The Indian Cricket Board was thus created in 1928, and India made her debut four years later... All of Col Nayudu's 7 Tests were against England, scoring 350 runs with 81 as his highest, 9 wickets and 4 catches... Playing for ...

🏏🏏 Today marks the anniversary of two forgotten names in Indian cricketing history - K. R. Singh and K. C. Ibrahim... K. R. SINGH (24 Feb 1922 – 12 Nov 1993) The fearless and aggressive right-hand batsman from the princely state of Darkoti (now in Himachal Pradesh), Kanwar Rai Singh, began his cricketing career in the Bombay Pentangular 1940-41 season... Regarded as a surprising selection for India's first ever tour of Australia in 1947-48 , he played the only Test of his international career at the MCG, Melbourne, scoring 2 and 24... On the domestic front he scored 1,778 runs @30.13 with 4 hundreds and 7 fifties, and 21 wickets @33.33 in 38 matches representing South Punjab, Maharaja of Patiala's XI and Services at different points in time... He became a Captain in Patiala Army, and was later promoted to Major in the Sikhli Regiment... His prioritization of military duty over his cricketing pastime explains the total of just 38 first class appearances i...

🏏🏏 A. G. MILKHA SINGH (31 Dec 1941 – 10 Nov 2017) Another cricketer who never quite got his due, one of a kind, dashing and flamboyant, was Amritsar Govindsingh Milkha Singh, who belonged to an illustrious cricketing family that migrated from Amristar to Madras in 1904... The left-handed batsman and an occasional right-arm medium pacer made his Ranji Trophy debut at the age of 17, and played his first Test just after his 18th birthday. But as his four Tests for India were played in a period of less than two years, his career was over, unfortunately, before he was 20. And despite being a prolific run getter in first-class cricket, Milkha Singh was, for some strange reason, never considered again... His Test debut was against Australia in January 1960, at Madras. His last Test, against England at Bombay in November 1961 was a historic one since it was the first instance of three players, two related, from Madras in the same Test - Milkha Singh, elder brothe...

🏏🏏 Today marks the death anniversary of two cricketers who represented India over half a century ago - the well-known Polly Umrigar, and the lesser-known E. S. Maka... P. R. UMRIGAR (28 Mar 1926 - 7 Nov 2006) One of the all time greats of Indian cricket, the Solapur born burly right handed middle-order batsman Pahlan Ratanji "Polly" Umrigar was the first Indian to score a double century in Tests. Representing Parsees, Bombay and Gujarat in the domestic circuit, he was also an effective right arm medium pacer and an off-spinner. He captained India in eight Test matches from 1955 to 1958... Umrigar's debut and final Tests were against the West Indies, Bombay 1948 and Kingston 1962 respectively. In 59 Tests he scored 3,631 runs @42.22 with 12 tons and 14 fifties, 223 highest (against New Zealand, 1955-56), 35 wickets @42.08 and 33 catches... He amassed 16155 runs @52.28 from 243 first class games, 252 highest, 49 tons and 80 fifties, 325 wickets @25.68 an...

🏏🏏 SUBRATA GUHA (31 Jan 1946 - 5 Nov 2003) Regarded as the finest from his state, Bengal's Subrata Guha, the six-feet tall right-arm medium pacer who swung the ball both ways with accuracy and possessed an effective off-cutter, could have represented India in more than four Tests. His career having coincided with India's era of spin, it was difficult for a seamer to make it to the playing eleven unless he could have made the bat speak as well... He rose into prominence as a 20-year-old, when he spearheaded a combined team of East Zone and Central Zone to a win over the touring West Indies in 1966-67, returning with figures of 4 for 64 and 7 for 49... Apart from his debut Test against England at Leeds in June 1967, Guha's remaining three Tests were at home, against Bill Lawry's Australia in 1969, the fourth Test at Eden Gardens being his last - he missed the historic 1971 tour to the West Indies down with Chicken Pox, and was never considered again... ...