Yashpal Sharma: Never out on zero, won the first World Cup!

There are some players whose success is not much talked about, but their contribution is huge. Former Indian batsman Yashpal Sharma had a similar career. When India defeated West Indies for the first time in the 1983 World Cup, Yashpal was the hero of that victory.

Born in Ludhiana, Punjab, Yashpal had a special love for cricket since the beginning. Soon he decided to make his career in this sport. However, during that period, Indian cricket was busy making its mark at the global level. In domestic cricket, Yashpal impressed everyone with his consistently strong game.

However, famous actor Dilip Kumar played a big role in taking Yashpal to international cricket. Dilip was impressed by Yashpal’s batting in domestic cricket and recommended him for the Indian team.

Yashpal’s excellent performance came to the fore in the 1983 World Cup. In the very first match of the tournament, the Indian team faced West Indies. In this match, the Indian team was struggling while batting first, but Yashpal came on the field and played a strong inning of 89 runs facing 120 balls.

Due to Yashpal’s brilliant innings, the Indian team was successful in defeating West Indies in this match. After this, another excellent performance of Yashpal was seen in the semi-final match.

Batting at number four, he scored important 61 runs in 115 balls with the help of 3 fours and 2 sixes, on the basis of which India defeated England by 6 wickets and made it to the final. Yashpal was never out on zero in his ODI career.

Yashpal played 37 Test matches for India and scored 1606 runs at an average of 33, which included 2 centuries and 9 fifties. At the same time, in the ODI format, he scored 883 runs in 42 matches with the help of 4 half-centuries.

After saying goodbye to international career, Yashpal also remained the Indian chief selector twice. It was under his supervision that the Indian team won the ODI World Cup title in 2011. Yashpal Sharma died of a heart attack on July 13, 2021.