Subhash Gupte

In his time, the best of his type in the game, Subash Gupte was a world-class leg break-googly bowler. Of slight build, he was a big spinner of the ball, but his line and length remained immaculate. He gave the ball plenty of air and his googly was most deceptive. After a slow start, his Test career really took off in the West Indies in 1952-53, when he took 50 wickets at an average of 23.64. More impressive was the fact that he took 27 wickets in the Tests on perfect batting wickets, and while bowling to the three W's, Rae, Stollmeyer and Pairaudeau. He was again the most successful bowler in Pakistan in 1954-55 with 21 wickets and the following season against New Zealand he was quite unplayable in finishing with 34 wickets (19.67), the Indian record until Chandrasekhar surpassed it 27 years later. The fleet-footed Australian Neil Harvey dented Gupte's confidence in 1956-57, but he was was back to his old magic in capturing 9 for 102 in an innings against West Indies at Kanpur two seasons later. He finished the series with 22 wickets and embarked on the tour of England in 1959 with confidence (he had narrowly missed making the trip in 1952). He captured 95 wickets (26.58) on the tour, but only 17 of them were taken in the five Tests. By then Gupte had married a West Indian girl and had settled in Trinidad but he returned to make five more appearances in the sixties, three against Pakistan in 1960-61 and two against England the following season. In his penultimate Test, he showed that he had lost none of his old subtlety when with a spell of 4 for 6 off 18 balls at Kanpur he had England following on for the first time against India. During a first-class career that stretched from 1947 to 1964, Gupte took 530 wickets (23.71). This included taking of all ten for Bombay against Pakistan Services and Bahawalphur CC in 1954. In 1982 a benefit match for him was held in Sharjah.
Partab Ramchand