IN REMEMBRANCE - INDIAN TEST CRICKETERS

🏏🏏 L. P. JAI (1 Apr 1902 - 29 Jan 1968) Beating Northern India, Bombay, led by Laxmidas Purshottamdas Jai, was the first team to win the Ranji Trophy in March 1935... Literally a superstar of yesteryears, the man whom Vijay Merchant called his guru, and who was regarded as one of the finest and elegant strokeplayers in the Bombay Quadrangular, had L. P. Jai not pulled out of the England tour of 1932, and not suffered an injury on the 1936 one, he wouldn't have been an one Test wonder... Jai's only Test - the first ever on Indian soil - was against England at Bombay, in December 1933, where he scored just 19 runs. India lost the Test by 9 wickets despite Lala Amarnath's memorable century on debut... Playing for almost over two decades (1920-21 to 1941-42) in an era of not too much of first class cricket, only 67 of Jai's games received status recognition. He scored 3,231 runs @31.99 with 6 hundreds and 19 fifties, 3 wickets and 26 catches, teams repre...

🏏🏏 P. KRISHNAMURTHY (12 Jul 1947 - 28 Jan 1999)  Pallemoni Krishnamurthy, also known as Pochiah Krishnamurthy, the man behind the stumps for India in the famous 1971 Ajit Wadekar led series against the West Indies which scripted history, sadly enough went 'behind the curtains' thereafter (except for the lone ODI five years later), his role in the maiden victory being long since forgotten... Krishnamurthy's Test debut was at Kingston in February 1971, and his last at Port of Spain in April 1971... Rather tall (5' 8") for an Indian wicketkeeper, Krishnamurthy was Hyderabad's gloveman-in-chief from 1966-67 to 1978-79, holding the distinction of batting at all eleven positions. Unable to be as belligerent with the bat as Farokh Engineer, and without being as fortunate as Syed Kirmani to keep to Prasanna and Chandrashekhar, Krishnamurthy perhaps found the Test odds stacked against him... Krishnamurthy's five Tests yielded him 33 runs @5.50, a top ...

🏏🏏 R. F. SURTI (25 May 1936 – 13 Jan 2013) Despite a defeat staring at him and India, a man bowled his heart out on the 9th of November 1969 at the Brabourne Stadium, snaring up the wickets of the Australian openers Keith Stackpole and Bill Lawry, shattering the skipper's stumps. That turned out to be his final Test match for India, at the same venue where he had made his debut... The bowler was Surat born Rusi Framroze Surti, the illustrious utility left-handed allrounder, who played in 26 Tests for India from 1960 to 1969. With the abilities of pace, swing and spin bowling coupled with being a reliable lower order batsman and a fielder par excellence, Surti was arguably any captain's both dream and delight... A popular professional for Haslingden in the Lancashire League in 1959, Surti made his Test debut in December 1960 against Pakistan... In 26 Tests Surti scored 1263 runs @28.70 with a highest of 99, nine...

🏏🏏🏑 MOHAMMAD IFTIKHAR ALI KHAN SIDDIQUI (16 Mar 1910 – 5 Jan 1952) Mohammad Iftikhar Ali Khan Siddiqui, the erstwhile eighth Nawab of Pataudi, is the only cricketer to have played Tests for both India and England, three each. And like Col C. K. Nayudu, Iftikhar Ali Khan too captained India in all the Tests that he played... Making his debut in the bodyline Ashes series of 1932 down under, he emulated both Ranjitsinhji and Duleepsinhji with his century at the SCG. He played just one more Test in that series as he disapproved of his skipper Douglas Jardine's approach and tactics... Iftikhar Ali Khan got a recall during the 1934 Ashes, and played his last for England as he returned to India soon after. He was all set to lead India for the 1936 England tour, but the scheming Vizzy managed to throw a spanner in the works. However, Iftikhar Ali Khan led India a decade later to England, in 1946, and though England won the three Test series 1-0, the Indian p...