The coming of age of Subhash Gupte
Partab Ramchand - 12 April 2002
On the eve of India’s first visit to the West Indies, early in
1953, there were certain misgivings in this country and not
without good reason. For one thing, all the wheeling and dealing
in the selection process meant that the squad that left Indian
shores was not the strongest it could have been. Strange
cricketing equations at the highest level meant that the
captaincy went back quite unexpectedly to Vijay Hazare, even
though Lala Amarnath had led India to their first series win over
Pakistan just before the announcement of the team to the West
Indies was made.
Then, for various reasons, Probir Sen, Ghulam Ahmed, CD Gopinath
and G Kasturirangan withdrew, and the replacements were not in
the same class. This placed additional responsibility on the
tried and trusted shoulders of Hazare, his deputy Vinoo Mankad,
and Dattu Phadkar.
As luck would have it, none of the three could live up to their
reputation. Hazare, playing in what proved to be his last Test
series, scored just 194 runs at an average of 19.40. Mankad’s
form was below his stature as one of the world’s leading all-
rounders. Phadkar did fairly well in the first three Tests, was
injured midway through the fourth, in which he did not bowl, and
missed the final Test.
As if this were not enough, the West Indies were then at their
post-war peak. In 1950 they had won a series in England for the
first time, and they were rated just behind the all-conquering
Australians. Their batting was particularly powerful with the
three Ws, Allan Rae and Jeffrey Stollmeyer around. The bowling
was no less formidable, with Sonny Ramadhin and Alf Valentine at
their peak, and Frank King a more-than-handy paceman.
Under the circumstances, the final result a 1-0 victory for the
home team was a matter for congratulations for the Indians. Few
gave them any chance at the start of the tour, and indeed the
president of the Bombay Cricket Association, at the send-off
function for the team, consoled the players that, while they were
not strong enough to beat the West Indians, perhaps they would
manage to play good cricket without bothering about the results.
But a pleasant surprise awaited Indian cricket fans. The Indian
players produced their first respectable overseas showing since
they had started playing Tests some 20 years before. For the
first time abroad, they displayed some of the form they often did
at home, and when the team returned, they were greeted by
editorials praising them rather than demanding an inquiry. Hazare
himself summed it up aptly by describing the trip as "my happiest
tour."
How did this transformation come about? By a combination of
factors really. Some of the players who were least expected to do
well came up trumps. Only the previous year, for example, Polly
Umrigar had cut a sorry figure on the tour of England. Plainly in
distress against pace bowling, he ended up with just 43 runs from
seven innings in the Test series.
This time, however, he was the commanding figure that he had been
time and again at home. In scoring 560 runs at an average of
62.22, with two hundreds and four fifties, he set a record for
the highest aggregate in a Test series by an Indian. Pankaj Roy,
another failure in England with 54 runs from seven innings, this
time advanced to 383 runs from eight innings. Madhav Apte, taken
primarily as a reserve opening bat, hit 460 runs at an average of
51.11. Vijay Manjrekar was one batsman to live up to his
reputation, scoring 254 runs at an average of 36.28.
The quartet, no doubt, did much to keep the menace of King, Gerry
Gomez, Ramadhin and Valentine from gnawing away at the batting.
But how did the Indians manage to keep the awesome West Indian
batting in check?
Actually, mainly through the efforts of one man - a little leg
spinner who proved more than a match for the might of the three
Ws and the rest. Subhash Gupte had played just three Tests prior
to the tour, and those with moderate success. The Mankad-Ghulam
Ahmed pairing had restricted his appearances, but now, given full
rein as the spearhead of the attack, Gupte rose to the
responsibility magnificently.
He never wilted even under the most intense pressures, and even
on the occasions when he took a lot of stick, he retained his
composure, always thinking of ways to get the batsmen out, always
trying something different. None of the famed West Indian batsmen
could take liberties with him, for Gupte had a lot of tricks up
his sleeve. His judicious mixture of leg-spinners, googlies and
top-spinners frequently had the batsmen flummoxed, and he was not
afraid of flighting the ball. With Mankad finding things
difficult his 15 wickets cost 53 apiece Gupte took on the
role of both stock and shock bowler and actually thrived on all
the hard work.
When the series ended, he had taken 27 wickets at an average of
29.22, and on the tour he took 50 wickets at 23.64, seven less
than the rest of the bowlers put together. His haul of 12 wickets
against Jamaica earned the visitors their only victory of the
tour.
Augmenting the batting and bowling was the fielding. In 70 years
of Indian Test cricket, the 1953 Indian team in the Caribbean
would still rank very high in this highly important but
frequently neglected aspect. Wisden observed that the fielding
reached "great heights, and there was little doubt that their
brilliant out-cricket had much to do with maintaining interest in
the tour."
Chandrasekhar Gadkari, Jaysinghrao Ghorpade, Datta Gaekwad, Apte
and Umrigar formed a particularly wonderful quintet of fielders,
swiftly covering ground and making flat, hard and accurate
returns to the wicket-keeper. Ivan Madray, who later played for
the West Indies, enjoyed the feast. Madray, then 18, observed,
"Theirs was a fantastic fielding side. Like lightning in the
field, they chased the ball to the boundary as if their lives
depended on it, picked it up and hurled it in one motion right
above the bails, effortlessly, cleanly, and all day. It was a
veritable feast for the eyes." Alas, this cannot always be said
about Indian fielding standards.
From the West Indian viewpoint, the most heartening aspect was
their batting. Everton Weekes, for the second successive rubber
against India, crossed the 700-run mark, while Clyde Walcott and
Frank Worrell also had their share of big scores. Ramadhin,
harshly treated by Umrigar, enjoyed only restricted success,
though ironically he played a leading role in the team’s only
triumph in the series the 142-run victory in the second Test at
Bridgetown. But Valentine lived up to his reputation by taking 28
wickets.
© CricInfo
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