PROBASHI- A Cultural News Magazine Volume 2 Issue 1 | Page 59

First Indian Test Cricket Team of cards and Indians were all out for 189 giving English a lead of 70 runs .

The English second innings saw the demolition squad lead by Jehangir Khan and Amar Singh reduce the English score to 67 / 4 . As in the first innings , Jardine got going and along with Paynter and assisted by some hard hitting by Robbins and Brown took the score to 275 and declared the innings leaving the Indian batsman with a target of 346 , indeed a tall order .

Indian batting could not live up to the challenge , only Amar Singh , coming in at 108 / 7 , sparkled for a while , hitting Robins for 19 in an over , including a six – adding 74 in 45 minutes with Lal Singh . His 51 took India to 187 , the final margin of loss being a comprehensive 158 . It is true that while Indian bowling and fielding was world class , the Indian batting left much to be desired .

Unfortunately for India , two of her best batsmen ‐ Nawab of Pataudi and Duleepsinghji of Jamnagar , both of whom earned place in the English national team , refused to play for the All India Cricket team of 1932 . Had these two batsmen been playing , India might well have defeated England in its maiden Test encounter and that match would have become part of the Indian cricketing lore . Interestingly during the 1932 tour when the All India Team played its first class match against the Sussex County , there were two Indian captains on the field ‐ CK Naidu the All India Team Captain and Duleepsinghji the Sussex team captain . Another player who was missed dearly at Lords was DN Deodhar ( after whom the Deodhar Trophy is named ). In 1932 at the age of 40 he was considered too old for the team . Deodhar was a prolific batsman with a first class average of 40 . On hindsight , age factor probably got a bit overplayed , Deodhar led Maharashtra to their only two Ranji Trophy triumphs in 1939‐40 and 40‐41 , eight years after the first Test at Lords was played .

SJ Southerton writing for Wisden expressed “ The tour proved of immense value to the Indians ......, and the lessons they learned will no doubt be passed on to the Indian cricketers of the future ”. The lessons were surely passed on , and when players like Sachin and Dhoni fashion Indian wins on the cricket field , the legacy of those lessons is visible in practice , passed on through generations of Indian cricketers .

1-8,2-11,3-19,4-101,5-149,6-166,7-229,8-231,9-252 , 10-259

Written By Probashi Editorial Team , coordinated by Sudipto Sengupta