Saurashtra's cricketing heroes: From Ranjitsinhji to Mankad to Pujara

Kumar Shri Ranjitsinhji in the early 1900sRajkot As Rajkot is all set to stage its first ever Test match between India and England from tomorrow happy memories of Kumar Shri Ranjitsinhji and KS Duleepsinhji as well as others from Saurashtra who represented the country warm the cockles of the hearts of the regionrsquos cricket enthusiastsThough hailing from Jamnagar Ranji and Duleep dedicated themselves to English cricket Ranji in particular was never interested in Indian cricket not even after his playing days He was said to have rudely turned down the then Board of Controlfor Cricket in India BCCI supremoAnthony DrsquoMellorsquos request tohelp Indian cricket ldquoDuleep andI are English cricketers and wersquove nothing whatsoever to do with Indian cricketrdquo said Ranji to a stunned DrsquoMelloRanji the autocratBut the BCCI named the national championship Ranji Trophy after this great batsman but controversial king which some historians described him as an autocratOf course Duleep did serve Indian cricket first as a coach and then as chairman of the national selection committeeAmarsinh Nakum this is how his name ought to be written according to his late son Vijay and not as Amar Singh he was a Gujarati not Punjabi was Indiarsquos first genuine worldclass allrounder He belonged to RajkotNakum with Mohammad Nissar formed Indiarsquos most lethal pair of fast bowlers His elder brother Ramji Nakum also from Rajkot was an awesome fast bowler with speed height and a physique to die forMankad magicVinoo Mankad playing in the 1952 series vs EnglandSaurashtra gave another gifted allrounder to Indian and world cricket mdash Vinoo Mankad mdash immediately after World War II Mankad who was from Jamnagar was a righthand batsman and leftarm orthodox spinner He was a fine fielder too particularly off his own bowlingMankadrsquos achievements are as legendary as the man himself He had scored scorching Test centuries against Ray Lindwall and Keith Miller Down Under in 194748 In the 1952 Lordrsquos Test known as Mankadrsquos Test he made 72 and 184 and bowled 97 overs for 231 runs and five wicketsThe highlygifted Ravindra JadejaThere are shades of Mankad in whatever the young Ravindra Jadeja does on the field Jadeja also from Jamnagar bowls leftarm spin but bats lefthanded Like Mankad he has no particular choice in the batting order And he is a far better allround fielder than Mankad ever was Mankad graced more than halfadozen teams in domestic cricket Mankadrsquos competitor and contemporary Nyalchand Shah hailed from the erstwhile princely state of Dhrangadhra He was a great leftarm spinner in his own right but Mankadrsquos lsquoallroundrsquo presence in the Indian team meant he finished his career with a solitary TestJamnagar gave yet another top notch allrounder in Salim Durani Coached by Mankad he was a genius in the true sense of the term Though Durani had many spells of moderate to huge success you could not help feeling that he did not do full justice to his own sublime skills because of his happygolucky approach to both life and cricketRanjirsquos nephew Kumar Shri Indrajitsinhji also from Jamnagar played four Tests in the 1960s as a fairly decent wicketkeeper and batsman He was not only sandwiched between the more flamboyant Farokh Engineer and Budhi Kunderan but also overshadowed by their brilliance with the willow He represented Delhi and Saurashtra in firstclass cricketKarsan GhavriAnother lefthanded all rounder to step out from Rajkot was Karsan Ghavri Besides his customary mediumpaced bowling and useful batting his intelligent leftarm spin gave him an edge over others at times Ghavri had formed a successful newball pair with Kapil Dev in the late 1970s and early 1980sLike most players from Saurashtra the southpaw also got to play for India only after he began representing other side in domestic cricket In Ghavrirsquos case it was Mumbai Much the same could be said about the former India leftarm spinner Dilip Doshi born in Rajkot and Ajay Jadeja born in JamnagarWhile Doshi represented Bengal Nottinghamshire and Warwickshire before playing for India at the age of 32 and yet taking 100odd wickets Jadeja played for Haryana and finished his international career by appearing in 15 Tests and 196 oneday internationals Kumar Shri Yujurvindrasinh prince of the erstwhile Bilkha state near the Gir forest was so superb in the field He made his debut in the 197677 series against England Yajurvindra took seven catches in his very first Test against England at Bangalore and equalled the then existing world recordRajkotborn ParsanaDhiraj Parsana born in Rajkot represented Saurashtra Gujarat Railways and Durham in firstclass cricket as a leftarm spinner mediumpacer and useful batsman He played two Tests against the West Indies at home in 197879 without much successPujararsquos classy batting will be on view in RajkotBhavnagarrsquos Ashok Patel was the last player from Saurashtra before the latest triumvirate of Cheteshwar Pujara Ravindra Jadeja and Jaydev Unadkat the mediumpacer played one Test against SA in 2010 to represent the countryA genuine offspinner and more than useful batsman down the order Patel played eight ODIs in the mid1980s Of course there were others who were richly talented and were simply unlucky not to have played for the country for noncricketing reasons like Hiralal Trivedi D Narottam Naishadh Baxi Mulubha Jadeja Vajesinh Nakum Uday Joshi Rajendra Jadeja Naresh Parsana Suresh Keshwala Bimal Jadeja Brij Dutta Sudhir Tanna Hitesh Parsana Sitanshu Kotak and Sandeep JobanputraBut the scenario is fast changing now Pujara and Jadeja who have inspired a whole new generation of budding cricketers and now the Test match in Rajkot are bound to change the fortunes of Saurashtra players when it comes to representing India