Deepak Shodhan

The case of Deepak Shodhan is one of the most baffling in the history of Indian cricket. An attractive left-hand batsman, he made a memorable debut against Pakistan in the fifth Test at Calcutta in 1952-53. Coming in at No 8, with the total 179 for 6, he propped up the latter half of the order so effectively that India ultimately reached 397. Shodhan was last out for 110, becoming the first player to score a hundred in the first innings of his first Test for India.

He was immediately hailed as a bright new star on the Indian batting horizon and on the tour of West Indies which followed immediately he got 45 and 11 in the first Test at Port-of-Spain. Injuries however kept him out of the next three Tests and when brought back for the final Test, he was taken ill on the first day and could not bat in the first innings. In the second innings he got up from his sick bed, went in at No. 10 and scored 15 not out at a critical time when India were in some danger of losing the match.

At the end of the tour Shodhan had scored 181 runs in three Tests at an average of 60 plus. Astonishingly, that remained the extent of his Test career for he was never again picked to play for the country. However, he continued to play in the Ranji Trophy until the early sixties and had a record of 1235 runs (33.37) and 59 wickets (30.32) with his left-arm medium pacers in the national competition. He had four centuries in all in a first-class career that stretched from 1946 to 1962.

Shodhan had been India's oldest Test cricketer when he died at the age of 87, after battling lung cancer, in May 2016.
Partab Ramchand