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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