That unlucky wicketkeeper of Team India who opened both batting and bowling in his last test, but what was the reason?
This time the discussion starts with some questions:
* Who is called India's most unlucky wicketkeeper?
* Name of the batsman who was out hit wicket in his first test?
* Name of the Indian player who made his Test debut before playing Ranji Trophy?
* Name of the cricketer who opened both batting and bowling in his last test match?
* Name of the Indian cricketer who played cricket for Scotland in the 1980s?
The reason for asking all these questions is a record made recently. In the third Test in Rawalpindi, Pakistan's Saim Ayub opened both the batting and bowling, i.e. opening the batting and also opening the attack with the new ball. Generally this is not seen, but it is also true that there have been many players who have done this before him. So far, he is the 70th player to do this in Tests and this has happened a total of 154 times.
Two Indian all-rounders are at the forefront in this matter – Manoj Prabhakar (22 times) and ML Jaisimha (13 times) followed by Pakistan's Mudassar Nazar (9 times) and India's Abid Ali (6). Before Sam Ayub, this feat was last seen in a Test against West Indies in Bulawayo in late 2017 when Zimbabwe's Solomon Mayer set the record. If you look at this list, you will find one name which will stop everyone because this name is of an expert wicketkeeper. It is fine that a wicketkeeper opened the batting, but what happened that he also started the attack with the new ball?
This is India's wicketkeeper Buddhi Kunderan and he made the record against England at Edgbaston in July 1967. This name is the answer to all the questions written above. There are many more such questions and stories associated with his name. Let us talk about the same Edgbaston Test of 1967. This was Kunderan's 18th and last Test. On the first morning of the Test, Kunderan opened the bowling with Subramaniam and bowled 4 overs (conceding 13 runs) while opening the batting with second wicketkeeper Farooq Engineer.
When India's team was announced for this test, the names of two wicketkeepers in it surprised everyone. However, it was made clear by the team that the wicketkeeper would be an engineer and Kunderan would be a specialist batsman and bowl with the new ball. Captain Mansoor Ali Khan was Pataudi and Pataudi has mentioned this incident in his book 'Tiger's Tail'. In the press conference a day before the Test, he was asked what style of bowling Kunderan bowls? His answer was – 'I will be able to tell this only after seeing Kunderan bowling – we will have to wait and see.'
It was clear that giving the new ball to Kunderan is just a formality and the team has full faith in the spinner. This Edgbaston Test was the only Test in which India fielded all four of its great spinners of the 1960s and 70s, Khabbu Bishan Bedi, leg spinner Bhagwat Chandrasekhar and off-spinners Erapalli Prasanna and S Venkataraghavan.
After this 1967 series in England, Kunderan was dropped for the Australian tour in 1967–68 and this blow was a big blow for Kunderan. The selectors were wrong from every point of view. Kunderan's batting average at that time was 32, which was not only higher than the Indian wicketkeepers of that era (this list includes PG Joshi, Naren Tamhane, Farooq Engineer and KS Inderjitsinhji), yet he played only 18 Tests in 8 years and in this career I too was on 'test' all the time!
His bowling in that Edgbaston Test was much talked about in the British media and bowling for the first time in his Test career, he gave only 13 runs in 4 overs. It is true that Kunderan could bowl (overall record in first class cricket: 3-160 off 219 balls in 129 matches) but it was just a formality bowling. In this too, Kunderan had thrown a bumper to Geoff Boycott. Boycott had to duck to avoid him.
Unlucky because he competed with the more popular 'Brill Cream Boy' Farooq Engineer for wicketkeeping duties in Tests, but those who have seen both of them keeping wickets say that he was at least as good a keeper as Farooq. . His test average of 32.70 in the last record is better than Farooq (31.08). What's more, in his 18-Test career, Kunderan opened 21 times and scored at an average of 41 – a record that is extremely impressive for any batsman.
However, amidst all these discussions, in the same 1967 series, Kunderan got a memorable bonus which changed his life. Met and married Linda during the Headingley Test. All these incidents are a different story.
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