New Delhi: The Seventies were barren years for East Zone, a minnow in domestic cricket those days. No cricketer from Bengal, Bihar, Orissa and Assam, the four states which combined to form the zone in Duleep Trophy then, found a place in a Test playing XI. In 1979, the drought was broken by an aging left-arm spinner from Bengal, who in his broad-frame glasses looked like a professor but bowled with the parsimony and carefulness of a book-keeper.Dilip Doshi, who passed away in London on Monday following a heart attack, made his debut a few months short of 32, but ensured that he left the scene only after scalping a respectable 114 wickets in 33 Tests.India’s bowling, for much of the 1960s and 1970s, revolved around Bedi, Chandrashekhar, Prasanna and Venkataraghavan, masters of their respective spin craft. Together the Fab Four ensured that others of the tribe seldom (VV Kumar, 2 Tests) or never (Rajinder Goel, Padmakar Shivalkar) stepped a foot inside the Test door. A few years younger, Doshi escaped their plight. He was delayed but not denied.In his debut Test in Chennai, the Rajkot-born cricketer took eight wickets, including 6/103 in the first innings, against Kim Hughes’ Australians. The Test was drawn but his second eight-wicket haul, including 5/43 in the first innings, ensured an innings victory for India at Wankhede. In all, he took 27 wickets in the series, underlining his determination to make up for the lost time. Doshi was here to stay.
Wankhede turned out to be his favourite venue. Doshi’s six wickets (3/52 & 3/42) were key to India’s triumph over Asif Iqbal’s fancied Pakistan in a low-scoring encounter. This was also the series when the left-arm spinner’s 18 wickets combined with Kapil Dev’s 32 as India pulled off an unlikely 2-0 triumph in 1979.Doshi wasn’t much of a bat, but valued his wicket. At Eden Garden in the same series, he hung on for a priceless 61 minutes to defy a bowling attack led by Imran Khan. His last-wicket stand of 33 with Karsan Ghavri ensured that Pakistan returned winless. Like batting, fielding wasn’t his strength either. But cricket fans were always fascinated to see him ‘bowl’ his throws from the deep.As he wrote in his autobiography ‘Spin Punch’, Doshi learnt much of his cricket in the ‘paras’ of Kolkata. He wanted to play the game at the highest level after watching Rohan Kanhai “play that delectable innings” at Eden Garden in 1958. “Later I was to see Salim Durrani bowl his teasing and easy style of deception and somehow I knew that I wanted to be a slow left-arm destroyer,” he wrote.Quiz: Who’s that IPL player?Christopher Martin Jenkins’s biographical dictionary of world cricketers describes Doshi as “a gentle intelligent character, philosophical and humorous behind a studious front…” It further says, “…less liquid of movement than the great Bedi, Doshi nevertheless had an easy action, turning the ball sharply and bowled with exceptional accuracy. Mixing flight and pace thoughtfully, he lured batsmen to destruction in a wide variety of cricket, not least in Test matches.”What earned him grudging respect, even from his detractors, was his commitment to the team. Doshi played with a “spiral fracture of the first metatarsal” against Australia in Melbourne in 1981. Who would believe today that he bowled an astonishing 74 overs in that game? His thriftiness bottled Australia when India was defending just 142. Kapil Dev, who bowled with a pulled thigh muscle after taking pain-killing injections, produced an outstanding 5/28 to bowl out the hosts for 83. Doshi’s match-figures: 52-14-109-3 and 22-9-33-2.The spinner also enjoyed a fruitful run in county cricket with Nottinghamshire and Warwickshire. During this period, he formed a close friendship with rock band Rolling Stone’s frontman Mick Jagger. His Test career ended in 1983.In his autobiography, the spinner writes with some bitterness about the circumstances in which he quit. But ending a career that started so late with a century of Test wickets was no small feat. A key takeaway from the cricketer’s sporting life is: grab your chance whenever it comes; it’s never too late to make success in your life.Doshi was seen attending the World Test Championship final earlier this month. His sudden death was mourned by many on social media.
