Test Cricket 1970s and 1980s - Top Batsmen

 (27 November 1970 to 16 April 1990)

Sunil Gavaskar led the charge in the 1970s with a tremendous series in the West Indies, 774 runs in four Test matches, including a double century and century in the same Test. He never looked back, becoming the first to scale the Everest of 10,000 Test runs, earlier going past the inimitable Don Bradman’s 35-year-old record of 29 hundreds, setting a new benchmark for Sachin Tendulkar to surpass.

Greg Chappell made his Test debut just before Gavaskar, an upright, elegant player who overhauled Bradman’s Australian record aggregate of 6996 runs. The supercilious marauder Vivian Richards arrived a few years later, followed by the impish, street-smart Javed Mianded. The left-handed gritty fighter Allan Border followed suit, and went on to top Gavaskar’s aggregate, becoming the first to post 11,000 Test runs. Meanwhile, the copybook opener Geoff Boycott carried over his broad blade from the 1960s. All of them scored over 5000 Test runs and averaged above 50 in this golden age of the 1970s and 1980s.

Two other Australians, Ian Redpath and Dean Jones, averaged over 50, hitting up more than 2500 Test runs. Even in the evening of his brilliant career, the great Gary Sobers crashed 1256 runs in 17 Tests in the 1970s, at an average of 52.33 with a highest of 178 not out with 5 hundreds and 4 fifties. Two openers Charlie Davis of the West Indies, and Mark Taylor of Australia, averaged in the mid-60s while notching up over 1000 runs. Davis averaged 66.56 for his 1065 runs, and Taylor averaged 64.72 as he scored 1618 runs.

David Gower, Gordon Greenidge, Dilip Vengsarkar, Clive Lloyd, Gundappa Viswanath, Desmond Haynes, Ian Botham and Zaheer Abbas crafted over 5000 runs in this period. All of them averaged in the 40s, except allrounder Botham who scored 34.35 runs per innings. Several other batsmen scored over 2000 runs and averaged above 40.

Top Rungetters (minimum 5000 runs)

Sunil Gavaskar (India), Tests 125, Highest Score 236*, Runs 10122, Average 51.12, Hundreds 34, Fifties 45

Allan Border (Australia), Tests 115, Highest Score 205, Runs 8701, Average 53.38, Hundreds 23, Fifties 48

Vivian Richards (West Indies), Tests 111, Highest Score 291, Runs 7990, Average 51.21, Hundreds 24, Fifties 38

Javed Miandad (Pakistan), Tests 104, Highest Score 280*, Runs 7891, Average 56.36, Hundreds 22, Fifties 38

David Gower (England), Tests 106, Highest Score 215, Runs 7383, Average 43.42, Hundreds 15, Fifties 37

Gordon Greenidge (West Indies), Tests 100, Highest Score 223, Runs 7134, Average 46.02, Hundreds 18, Fifties 34

Greg Chappell (Australia), Tests 87, Highest Score 247*, Runs 7110, Average 53.86, Hundreds 24, Fifties 31

Dilip Vengsarkar (India), Tests 107, Highest Score 166, Runs 6545, Average 44.22, Hundreds 17, Fifties 32

Clive Lloyd (West Indies), Tests 92, Highest Score 242*, Runs 6356, Average 48.51, Hundreds 16, Fifties 34

Gundappa Viswanath (India), Tests 87, Highest Score 222, Runs 5746, Average 41.63, Hundreds 13, Fifties 33

Desmond Haynes (West Indies), Tests 89, Highest Score 184, Runs 5711, Average 41.99, Hundreds 14, Fifties 31

Geoff Boycott (England), Tests 67, Highest Score 191, Runs 5505, Average 50.50, Hundreds 16, Fifties 29

Ian Botham (England), Tests 97, Highest Score 208, Runs 5119, Average 34.35, Hundreds 14, Fifties 22

Zaheer Abbas (Pakistan), Tests 77, Highest Score 274, Runs 5023, Average 45.25, Hundreds 12, Fifties 20

 

Best Averages (minimum 2000 runs and average of 50 and above)

Javed Miandad (Pakistan), Tests 104, Highest Score 280*, Runs 7891, Average 56.36, Hundreds 22, Fifties 38

Greg Chappell (Australia), Tests 87, Highest Score 247*, Runs 7110, Average 53.86, Hundreds 24, Fifties 31

Allan Border (Australia), Tests 115, Highest Score 205, Runs 8701, Average 53.38, Hundreds 23, Fifties 48

Dean Jones (Australia), Tests 34, Highest Score 216, Runs 2637, Average 51.70, Hundreds 9, Fifties 9

Vivian Richards (West Indies), Tests 111, Highest Score 291, Runs 7990, Average 51.21, Hundreds 24, Fifties 38

Sunil Gavaskar (India), Tests 125, Highest Score 236*, Runs 10122, Average 51.12, Hundreds 34, Fifties 45

Ian Redpath (Australia), Tests 29, Highest Score 171, Runs 2578, Average 50.54, Hundreds 7, Fifties 15

Geoff Boycott (England), Tests 67, Highest Score 191, Runs 5505, Average 50.50, Hundreds 16, Fifties 29

 

Best Averages (minimum 1000 runs but below 2000 runs, and average of 50 and above)

Charlie Davis (West Indies), Tests 11, Highest Score 183, Runs 1065, Average 66.56, Hundreds 3, Fifties 4

Mark Taylor (Australia), Tests 15, Highest Score 219, Runs 1618, Average 64.72, Hundreds 6, Fifties 8

Gary Sobers (West Indies), Tests 17, Highest Score 178*, Runs 1256, Average 52.33, Hundreds 5, Fifties 4

 

Best Averages (minimum 2000 runs and average of 40 and above, but below 50)

Dennis Amiss (England), Tests 45, Highest Score 262*, Runs 3487, Average 49.11, Hundreds 11, Fifties 11

Mohammad Azharuddin (India), Tests 37, Highest Score 199, Runs 2527, Average 48.59, Hundreds 8, Fifties 9

Clive Lloyd (West Indies), Tests 92, Highest Score 242*, Runs 6356, Average 48.51, Hundreds 16, Fifties 34

Glenn Turner (New Zealand), Tests 32, Highest Score 259, Runs 2441, Average 47.86, Hundreds 6, Fifties 11

Ian Chappell (Australia), Tests 44, Highest Score 196, Runs 3578, Average 47.07, Hundreds 10, Fifties 18

Richie Richardson (West Indies), Tests 49, Highest Score 194, Runs 3515, Average 46.25, Hundreds 10, Fifties 13

Gordon Greenidge (West Indies), Tests 100, Highest Score 223, Runs 7134, Average 46.02, Hundreds 18, Fifties 34

Roy Fredericks (West Indies), Tests 49, Highest Score 169, Runs 3809, Average 45.89, Hundreds 8, Fifties 22

Martin Crowe (New Zealand), Tests 48, Highest Score 188, Runs 3288, Average 45.66, Hundreds 11, Fifties 11

Zaheer Abbas (Pakistan), Tests 77, Highest Score 274, Runs 5023, Average 45.25, Hundreds 12, Fifties 20

Alvin Kallicharran (West Indies), Tests 66, Highest Score 187, Runs 4399, Average 44.43, Hundreds 12, Fifties 21

Dilip Vengsarkar (India), Tests 107, Highest Score 166, Runs 6545, Average 44.22, Hundreds 17, Fifties 32

Lawrence Rowe (West Indies), Tests 30, Highest Score 302, Runs 2047, Average 43.55, Hundreds 7, Fifties 7

David Gower (England), Tests 106, Highest Score 215, Runs 7383, Average 43.42, Hundreds 15, Fifties 37

Mohinder Amarnath (India), Tests 68, Highest Score 138, Runs 4362, Average 42.76, Hundreds 11, Fifties 24

Doug Walters (Australia), Tests 49, Highest Score 250, Runs 3107, Average 42.56, Hundreds 8, Fifties 19

Asif Iqbal (Pakistan), Tests 41, Highest Score 175, Runs 2703, Average 42.23, Hundreds 10, Fifties 7

Mushtaq Mohammad (Pakistan), Tests 35, Highest Score 201, Runs 2449, Average 42.22, Hundreds 8, Fifties 12

Desmond Haynes (West Indies), Tests 89, Highest Score 184, Runs 5711, Average 41.99, Hundreds 14, Fifties 31

Salim Malik (Pakistan), Tests 57, Highest Score 119*, Runs 2718, Average 41.81, Hundreds 7, Fifties 15

Gundappa Viswanath (India), Tests 87, Highest Score 222, Runs 5746, Average 41.63, Hundreds 13, Fifties 33

Majid Khan (Pakistan), Tests 53, Highest Score 167, Runs 3584, Average 41.19, Hundreds 8, Fifties 17

Keith Fletcher (England), Tests 53, Highest Score 216, Runs 3045, Average 41.14, Hundreds 7, Fifties 18

Graham Yallop (Australia), Tests 39, Highest Score 268, Runs 2756, Average 41.13, Hundreds 8, Fifties 9

John Edrich (England), Tests 37, Highest Score 175, Runs 2427, Average 41.13, Hundreds 4, Fifties 14

Tony Greig (England), Tests 58, Highest Score 148, Runs 3599, Average 40.43, Hundreds 8, Fifties 20

 

Full Career of those who also played in eras before or after

Allan Border (Australia, 1978-94), Tests 156, Highest Score 205, Runs 11174, Average 50.56, Hundreds 27, Fifties 63

Graham Gooch (England, 1975-95), Tests 118, Highest Score 333, Runs 8900, Average 42.58, Hundreds 20, Fifties 46

Javed Miandad (Pakistan, 1976-93), Tests 124, Highest Score 280*, Runs 8832, Average 52.57, Hundreds 23, Fifties 43

Vivian Richards (West Indies, 1975-91), Tests 121, Highest Score 291, Runs 8540, Average 50.23, Hundreds 24, Fifties 45

David Gower (England, 1978-92), Tests 117, Highest Score 215, Runs 8231, Average 44.25, Hundreds 18, Fifties 39

Geoff Boycott (England, 1964-82), Tests 108, Highest Score 246*, Runs 8114, Average 47.72, Hundreds 22, Fifties 42

Gary Sobers (West Indies, 1954-74), Tests 93, Highest Score 365*, Runs 8032, Average 57.78, Hundreds 26, Fifties 30

Gordon Greenidge (West Indies, 1974-91), Tests 108, Highest Score 226, Runs 7558, Average 44.72, Hundreds 19, Fifties 34

Mark Taylor (Australia, 1989-99), Tests 104, Highest Score 186, Runs 7525, Average 43.49, Hundreds 19, Fifties 40

Clive Lloyd (West Indies, 1966-85), Tests 110, Highest Score 242*, Runs 7515, Average 46.67, Hundreds 19, Fifties 39

Desmond Haynes (West Indies, 1978-94), Tests 116, Highest Score 184, Runs 7487, Average 42.29, Hundreds 18, Fifties 39

David Boon (Australia, 1984-96), Tests 107, Highest Score 200, Runs 7422, Average 43.65, Hundreds 21, Fifties 32

Dilip Vengsarkar (India, 1976-92), Tests 116, Highest Score 166, Runs 6868, Average 42.13, Hundreds 17, Fifties 35

Rohan Kanhai (West Indies, 1957-74), Tests 79, Highest Score 256, Runs 6227, Average 47.53, Hundreds 15, Fifties 28

Mohammad Azharuddin (India, 1984-2000), Tests 99, Highest Score 199, Runs 6215, Average 45.03, Hundreds 22 Fifties 21

Gundappa Viswanath (India, 1969-83), Tests 91, Highest Score 222, Runs 6080, Average 41.93, Hundreds 14, Fifties 35

Richie Richardson (West Indies, 1983-95), Tests 86, Highest Score 194, Runs 5949, Average 44.39, Hundreds 16, Fifties 27

Salim Malik (Pakistan, 1982-99), Tests 103, Highest Score 237, Runs 5768, Average 43.69, Hundreds 15, Fifties 29

Martin Crowe (New Zealand, 1982-95), Tests 77, Highest Score 299, Runs 5444, Average 45.36, Hundreds 17, Fifties 18

Doug Walters (Australia, 1965-81), Tests 74, Highest Score 250, Runs 5357, Average 48.26, Hundreds 15, Fifties 33

Ian Chappell (Australia, 1964-80), Tests 75, Highest Score 196, Runs 5345, Average 42.42, Hundreds 14, Fifties 26

Ian Botham (England, 1977-92), Tests 102, Highest Score 208, Runs 5200, Average 33.54, Hundreds 14, Fifties 22

John Edrich (England, 1963-76), Tests 77, Highest Score 310*, Runs 5138, Average 43.54, Hundreds 12, Fifties 24

Zaheer Abbas (Pakistan, 1969-85), Tests 78, Highest Score 274, Runs 5062, Average 44.79, Hundreds 12, Fifties 20

Ian Redpath (Australia, 1964-76), Tests 66, Highest Score 171, Runs 4737, Average 43.45, Hundreds 8, Fifties 31

Mohinder Amarnath (India, 1969-88), Tests 69, Highest Score 138, Runs 4378, Average 42.50, Hundreds 11, Fifties 24

Roy Fredericks (West Indies, 1968-77, Tests 59, Highest Score 169, Runs 4334, Average 42.49, Hundreds 8, Fifties 26

Majid Khan (Pakistan, 1964-83), Tests 63, Highest Score 167, Runs 3931, Average 38.92, Hundreds 8, Fifties 19

Mushtaq Mohammad (Pakistan, 1959-79), Tests 57, Highest Score 201, Runs 3643, Average 39.17, Hundreds 10, Fifties 19

Dean Jones (Australia, 1984-92), Tests 52, Highest Score 216, Runs 3631, Average 46.55, Hundreds 11, Fifties 14

Dennis Amiss (England, 1966-77), Tests 50, Highest Score 262*, Runs 3612, Average 46.30, Hundreds 11, Fifties 11

Asif Iqbal (Pakistan, 1964-80), Tests 58, Highest Score 175, Runs 3575, Average 38.85, Hundreds 11, Fifties 12

Keith Fletcher (England, 1968-82), Tests 59, Highest Score 216, Runs 3272, Average 39.90, Hundreds 7, Fifties 19

Glenn Turner (New Zealand, 1969-83), Tests 41, Highest Score 259, Runs 2991, Average 44.64, Hundreds 7, Fifties 14

Graham Yallop (Australia, 1976-84), Tests 39, Highest Score 268, Runs 2756, Average 41.13, Hundreds 8, Fifties 9

Road to the cricket World Cup 2019. Collis King and Vivian Richards launch ferocious assault for the crown. Excerpt from Indra Vikram Singh’s book ‘The Big Book of World Cup Cricket 1975-2011’

England v West Indies (final) • Lord's, London, 23 June 1979

Vivian Richards in belligerent form.

Collis King on the rampage.

For over a-decade-and-a-half, Vivian Richards was king. On this mid-summer day Collis King put him in the shade. The two were associated in an exhilarating partnership, and Richards went on to get a super hundred. But King was simply brilliant in this game, and the king would be the first to admit that such was the case.

The West Indies began the final in exactly the same manner as they had done the previous one, four years earlier. They lost early wickets, and three had gone around the fifty mark. In 1975 Clive Lloyd had taken over at that stage. In this match the skipper too fell at 99 in the 30th over as Chris Old held a brilliant return catch. The champions were a worried lot when allrounder Collis King joined Richards.

They need not have been so apprehensive because King was in awesome form. The pair first repaired the damage, and at lunch the West Indies were 125 for four off 34 overs. Richards was on 55, and King 19. Mike Brearley has been hailed by many as an outstanding captain, though others feel that he was over-rated because the opposition was often feeble. In this final his calculations went awry.

After lunch Brearley put on his non-regular bowlers. This was just the opportunity Richards and King were looking for. They pounced on it with glee. Geoff Boycott was smashed for 38 runs off his six overs, with 11 coming off the 4th, and 15 off the 6th. Graham Gooch was carted for 27 in 4 overs. Brearley then tried Wayne Larkins with disastrous results. He was thrashed for 21 in two overs, with 16 coming off the second. And so 86 runs were logged in those 12 overs.

Perhaps Brearley could have pressed on in attacking mode. Maybe he could have bowled the occasional trundlers in tandem with the accomplished ones. Even these tactics might not have worked. One will never know. The score now stood at 210 for four at the end of 46 overs. The partnership continued as King and Richards piled on the runs.

Finally, King fell in the 51st over. His blazing 86 came off a mere 66 balls with 10 fours and 3 sixes. The pulsating 139-run partnership spanned only 21 overs. King was simply breathtaking. Farokh Engineer wrote: "It looked as if the spirit of Learie Constantine lived again in his body." All this while Vivian Richards managed only 46 runs. Amazingly, he was overshadowed - for once.

Perhaps Richards' pride had been hurt. He went on a rampage thereafter and hit 43 of the last 48 runs in 9 overs. He lofted the last ball of the innings in his nonchalant manner for a huge six. The West Indies finished at 286 for nine as Richards remained unbeaten with 138 off 157 balls with 11 fours and 3 sixes. The crowd was satiated.

The score was too big for England. Brearley and Boycott did put on 129 runs for the first wicket but they laboured for 38 overs to get them. They had already batted their side out of the match, and when Joel Garner claimed 5 wickets in 11 deliveries he only hurried the inevitable. Needless to say, the match will be remembered for the scintillating batting of Collis King and Vivian Richards as the West Indies lifted the gleaming Prudential World Cup for the second time.

West Indies       : 286 for 9 wickets (60 overs)

England                : 194 all out (51 overs)

(Author Indra Vikram Singh can be contacted on email singh_iv@hotmail.com).

Follow his blogs:

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The Big Book of World Cup Cricket 1975-2011

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Crowning Glory

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Don’s Century

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A Maharaja’s Turf

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Indra Vikram Singh’s forthcoming books:

Indian Spring, on India’s triumph in the cricket World Cup 2011

Wonder Down Under, special souvenir on the cricket World Cup 2015

K.S. Ranjitsinhji as seen through the eyes of some writers. Excerpts from Indra Vikram Singh’s book ‘Don’s Century’

The very thought of Ranji conjures images of the leg-glance. He was the inventor of the shot, one that was patently his own and an early glimpse of the suppleness of wrists that characterised the batting of later Indian stalwarts Gundappa Viswanath, Mohammad Azharuddin and V.V.S. Laxman.

Ranji worked hard to hone his talent, hiring professional bowlers from Surrey while he was at Cambridge. Simon Wilde wrote in his biography Ranji A Genius Rich and Strange: “He practised with as much purpose whether he had just been out for 100 or for 0. He was a severe critic of his own game, and if he was indeed a genius it was for his infinite capacity for taking pains, not for becoming a superlative cricketer overnight. He enjoyed theorizing about the game and putting those theories into practice.”

The outcome was a batting style that was as unique as it was novel, and it perplexed the English. (Neville) Cardus elucidated in Good Days (1934): “In the ‘nineties the game was absolutely English; it was even Victorian. W.G. Grace for years had stamped on cricket the English mark and the mark of the period. It was the age of simple first principles, of the stout respectability of the straight bat and the good-length balls. And then suddenly this visitation of dusky, supple legerdemain happened; a man was seen playing cricket as nobody in England could possibly have played it. The honest length ball was not met by the honest straight bat, but there was a flick of the wrist, and lo! The straight ball was charmed away to the leg-boundary. And nobody quite saw or understood how it all happened.”

(Peter) Hartland summed up the impact of Ranji on the game: “The batting star of the Golden Age in England was Ranjitsinhji, with a first-class average of 56 - virtually as high as any English-qualified player has ever achieved and quite phenomenal for the time, particularly since he scored at around 50 runs an hour. Taking a qualification of ten thousand runs for all English batsmen who faced their first ball in the nineteenth century, Ranji’s first-class average is approached only by Sussex teammate (C.B.) Fry with 50. Test bowling did not slow Ranjitsinhji much, and the combination of his high average and scoring rate in relation to others really does mark him as out of the ordinary.”

Ranji’s first-class average of 56.37 was the highest for a full career by an England-based player until as late as 1986 when Geoff Boycott retired with a fractionally higher average of 56.84. And if one considers that Ranji’s career was all but over in 1904; his appearances thereafter were sporadic in 1908 and 1912, and farcical in 1920, his deeds are even more astounding. Upto 1904, Ranji had scored 22,402 runs at an average of 58.49 with 65 hundreds in 267 matches, really in less than a decade. That is the true reflection of his genius.

To the outside world Ranji was an exceptionally gifted prince who toiled diligently in the nets to emerge as the finest batsman of his era. Yet not many realised the inner turmoil that he undoubtedly underwent during his best years at the wicket, what with the drama of his adoption that never was, the machinations over his succession as ruler and his financial woes at the time. And he was laid low by illness for long periods. One has to marvel at the fact that he excelled at the game under these trying circumstances. Or more likely, he used them as a spur to motivate himself and to prove to those who mattered that he was fit to be king.

Yet his charm transcended all the elegant runs that he made. As (Gilbert) Jessop wrote: “From the moment he stepped out of the pavilion he drew all eyes and held them. No one who saw him bat will ever forget it. He was the first man I ever knew who wore silk shirts, and there was something almost romantic about the very flow of his sleeves and the curve of his shoulders. He drew the crowds wherever he went, and at the height of his cricket days the shops in Brighton would empty if he passed along the street. Everyone wanted to see him.”

There was little doubt that Ranjitsinhji had transformed batting forever. As late as 1944, Pelham Warner wrote in The Book of Cricket: “With his wonderful eye and wrists, he could play back to almost any ball, however good a length, and however fast. Like Bradman, he seldom played a genuine forward stroke, for, again like Bradman he found that balls to which he could not play back he could, with his quickness of foot, get to and drive.” This ‘play back or drive’ method, however, could only be used by one with a sharp eye and quicksilver footwork, like a Ranji or a Bradman. English batsmen attempted to copy it with disastrous results. It takes someone extraordinary to play in an extraordinary way. Ranji scored more profusely than anyone had done before, just as Bradman was to do three decades later.

Don’s Century

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A Maharaja’s Turf  ISBN 978-81-901668-3-6

The Big Book of World Cup Cricket  ISBN 978-81-901668-4-3

Don’s Century  ISBN 978-81-901668-5-0

Crowning Glory  ISBN 978-81-901668-6-7

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Excerpts from Indra Vikram Singh's book 'Don's Century' ..... 2 - Chapter 7 : PEERLESS RUNGETTER AND OTHER MASTERS OF THE WILLOW (2. K.S. Ranjitsinhji)

Batting, having already been defined by Grace, saw its next two stars descend from distant lands. If Prince Ranjitsinhji, later the Jam Saheb of Nawanagar, delighted with his artistry at the crease, the Aussie Victor Trumper provided the thrills with his panache. The very thought of Ranji conjures images of the leg-glance. He was the inventor of the shot, one that was patently his own and an early glimpse of the suppleness of wrists that characterised the batting of later Indian stalwarts Gundappa Viswanath, Mohammad Azharuddin and V.V.S. Laxman.

Ranji worked hard to hone his talent, hiring professional bowlers from Surrey while he was at Cambridge. Simon Wilde wrote in his biography Ranji A Genius Rich and Strange: “He practised with as much purpose whether he had just been out for 100 or for 0. He was a severe critic of his own game, and if he was indeed a genius it was for his infinite capacity for taking pains, not for becoming a superlative cricketer overnight. He enjoyed theorizing about the game and putting those theories into practice.”

The outcome was a batting style that was as unique as it was novel, and it perplexed the English. Cardus elucidated in Good Days (1934): “In the ‘nineties the game was absolutely English; it was even Victorian. W.G. Grace for years had stamped on cricket the English mark and the mark of the period. It was the age of simple first principles, of the stout respectability of the straight bat and the good-length balls. And then suddenly this visitation of dusky, supple legerdemain happened; a man was seen playing cricket as nobody in England could possibly have played it. The honest length ball was not met by the honest straight bat, but there was a flick of the wrist, and lo! The straight ball was charmed away to the leg-boundary. And nobody quite saw or understood how it all happened.”

All those who saw Ranji bat vouched for the fact that he had an exceptionally quick eye and could hook the fastest bowling with ease. Though he had appeared in English first-class cricket since 1893, Ranjitsinhji’s first full season was in 1895 when he made his debut for Sussex against the MCC at Lord’s. He caused an immediate impact, carving out scores of 77 and 150. From then on he captured the imagination of the public and became a very popular, even mystical, figure.

The next year at the age of 23, Ranji topped the first-class averages at 57.92, surpassing Grace’s record season aggregate by scoring 2780 runs, and equalling the great senior’s 10 hundreds. In a unique feat, Ranji hit up a century in each innings of a match on the same day. Resuming at zero not out, he notched up 100 and 125 not out for Sussex against Yorkshire at Hove. The English were reluctant to pick him in their Test side, but his huge popularity ensured that he was selected for the second match. Appropriately, Ranji became the second England batsman after Grace to score a hundred on Test debut, an unbeaten 154 against Australia at Manchester, having hit 62 in the first innings. In the process he nearly pulled off an improbable win. In the 1897 season, Ranji scored 1940 runs at an average of 45.12. He hit up his first double-century, 260 in just 250 minutes with 36 fours and a six against MCC at Lord’s, the highest by a Sussex batsman.

Ranji never took the tedious sea journeys well. Prone to attacks of asthma, he was taken ill during the month-long voyage to Australia in 1897-98, even though he joined the team only in the south of the European Continent. He was still unwell when the first Test began in Sydney. Even so, he battled through, carving out a monumental 175, which was a record for England until R.E. Foster bettered it with 287 at the same venue six years later. Ranji’s knock enabled England to win their only Test in a series they lost 1-4. It was a productive tour for him personally, averaging over 50 in the Tests and over 60 in the first-class matches. In all he collected 1157 runs. At the end of the tour, Ranji returned to his homeland after a decade.

Having missed the English season of 1898 as a result of a long sojourn at home, Ranji’s best came at the turn of the century, even though he was not quite as slim and his feet seemed not as nimble. In 1899 he became the first to score 3000 runs in a season. He bailed out England in the first Test at Nottingham, scoring 42 and 93 not out, and holding Australia to a draw. By the end of the series he had scored 970 runs in 12 Tests at a brilliant average of 53.88. He amassed 3159 first-class runs at 63.18 per innings.

After a trip to the United States during the winter, Ranji’s 1900 season was just as brilliant. So irresistible was his form that he knocked up successive double centuries, both for Sussex - 222 against Somerset at Hove, and an unbeaten 215 versus Cambridge University at Fenners. Quite the master on rain-affected wickets, he breezed to 202 in three hours off the Middlesex bowling after a thunderstorm at Hove, the next highest by a Sussex colleague being 17. His five double centuries were a record for a season, bettered only by Bradman with six in 1930. Everton Weekes of the West Indies equalled Ranji’s five double tons exactly half a century later. The now-unstoppable Ranji logged up 3000 runs for the second successive season, this time scoring 3065 runs and topping the averages at a mind-boggling 87.57, hitting up 11 hundreds.

1901 was yet another splendid season. Again Ranji scored two double centuries in a row, once more representing his county, an unbeaten 285 against Somerset at Taunton and 204 at the expense of Lancashire at the home ground of Hove. The first was an amazing feat, not only for the fact that it was his top score and the highest-ever by a Sussex batsman, but because he was out fishing the entire previous night! For the 1901 season his tally was 2468 runs at 70.51 per innings. In three consecutive seasons, Ranjitsinhji had totalled 8692 runs at an average of 72.43 with 27 hundreds. The wizard from the orient continued to enchant and befuddle at the same time.          

He did not sail to Australia in 1901-02 and, perhaps due to the troubles in his personal life, lost form dramatically in the Tests in 1902, managing just 19 runs in four innings and never played at that level again. He still finished with a Test average of 44.96, a splendid achievement at the time. In first-class matches, though, Ranji continued to blaze away till 1904 when he again topped the 2000 mark as well as the averages - 2077 runs at 74.17.

Succession issues in Nawanagar kept Ranjitsinhji back in India, and he missed the next three seasons. He returned to England in 1908 as His Highness The Jam Sahib of Nawanagar, having being installed as ruler of the 3791 square miles, 13-gun salute princely State in circumstances so full of intrigue and danger as to render a racy novel hopelessly mundane. He played that season as well as in 1912, remarkably notching up 1000 runs each time. Ranji was seen on the cricket field one last time in 1920. Astonishingly, he played three first-class matches and, as was only to be expected, failed miserably. The fact was that his right eye had been removed five years earlier when on August 31 he had met with an accident while shooting grouse on the Yorkshire moors. This was soon after he returned from France, ending a brief and miserable stint in the army during the First World War.      

It is quite uncanny that another Indian of princely origin and dashing batsman who was also to lead Sussex, Nawab of Pataudi junior, Mansur Ali Khan, also virtually lost vision in his right eye after a car accident on July 1, 1961 on the way back to Hove after dining out at neighbouring Brighton. The difference was that Ranji had his mishap after his cricket career was over, while Tiger Pataudi met this fate when his journey in the game had hardly begun.

It was while Ranji was recuperating, eye still bandaged, that he travelled to Beckenham, Kent, on October 26, 1915 to attend the funeral of his former England captain W.G. Grace. The curtain had come down not just on one era, but for all practical purposes, two.

Hartland summed up the impact of Ranji on the game: “The batting star of the Golden Age in England was Ranjitsinhji, with a first-class average of 56 - virtually as high as any English-qualified player has ever achieved and quite phenomenal for the time, particularly since he scored at around 50 runs an hour. Taking a qualification of ten thousand runs for all English batsmen who faced their first ball in the nineteenth century, Ranji’s first-class average is approached only by Sussex teammate Fry with 50. Test bowling did not slow Ranjitsinhji much, and the combination of his high average and scoring rate in relation to others really does mark him as out of the ordinary.”

Ranji’s first-class average of 56.37 was the highest for a full career by an England-based player until as late as 1986 when Geoff Boycott retired with a fractionally higher average of 56.84. And if one considers that Ranji’s career was all but over in 1904; his appearances thereafter were sporadic in 1908 and 1912, and farcical in 1920, his deeds are even more astounding. Upto 1904, Ranji had scored 22,402 runs at an average of 58.49 with 65 hundreds in 267 matches, really in less than a decade. That is the true reflection of his genius.

To the outside world Ranji was an exceptionally gifted prince who toiled diligently in the nets to emerge as the finest batsman of his era. Yet not many realised the inner turmoil that he undoubtedly underwent during his best years at the wicket, what with the drama of his adoption that never was, the machinations over his succession as ruler and his financial woes at the time. And he was laid low by illness for long periods. One has to marvel at the fact that he excelled at the game under these trying circumstances. Or more likely, he used them as a spur to motivate himself and to prove to those who mattered that he was fit to be king.

Yet his charm transcended all the elegant runs that he made. As Jessop wrote: “From the moment he stepped out of the pavilion he drew all eyes and held them. No one who saw him bat will ever forget it. He was the first man I ever knew who wore silk shirts, and there was something almost romantic about the very flow of his sleeves and the curve of his shoulders. He drew the crowds wherever he went, and at the height of his cricket days the shops in Brighton would empty if he passed along the street. Everyone wanted to see him.”

There was little doubt that Ranjitsinhji had transformed batting forever. As late as 1944, Pelham Warner wrote in The Book of Cricket: “With his wonderful eye and wrists, he could play back to almost any ball, however good a length, and however fast. Like Bradman, he seldom played a genuine forward stroke, for, again like Bradman he found that balls to which he could not play back he could, with his quickness of foot, get to and drive.” This ‘play back or drive’ method, however, could only be used by one with a sharp eye and quicksilver footwork, like a Ranji or a Bradman. English batsmen attempted to copy it with disastrous results. It takes someone extraordinary to play in an extraordinary way. Ranji scored more profusely than anyone had done before, just as Bradman was to do three decades later.

(Author Indra Vikram Singh can be contacted on email singh_iv@hotmail.com).