Sensational debut, but little to follow

The West Indies, led by Vivian Richards, toured India in 1987-88 for a four-Test series. The first match was lost by India at Delhi whilst the second and third at Bombay and Calcutta were drawn. The fourth and final Test was scheduled for Madras, where an under prepared wicket likely to favour the spinners awaited the two teams.

Dilip Vengsarkar, the Indian captain was injured after scoring his second century of the series at Calcutta and the task of leading India fell on Ravi Shastri (incidentally the only Test he captained). India went in with three spinners – Shastri, Arshad Ayub & debutant Narinder Hirwani, who replaced Maninder Singh.

Shastri won the toss and elected to bat first. A swashbuckling, stroke-filled 109 off 124 balls by Kapil Dev supported by Arun Lal’s 59, Mohammad Azharuddin’s 47 and Ajay Sharma’s 30 lifted India to a healthy 382. Clyde Butts, the specialist spinner in the West Indian XI failed to pick a wicket though the off-spin of Hooper and Richards got three wickets between them.

In reply, the West Indians stumbled to the flight and spin of debutant Hirwani, who, in 18.3 overs took 8-61 to bowl the West Indians out for 184, Richards top scoring with 68.

Batting second time around, India built on their 198-run lead through Raman’s determined 83 supported by Ajay Sharma’s 39 to post a total of 217-8, when Shastri applied the closure. Set to score an improbable 416 to win on a turning track, West Indies crumbled yet again to the guiles of Hirwani (8-75) and were bowled out for 160. India won by 255 runs to level the series 1- 1.

Undoubtedly, Hirwani was the star, taking 16 wickets on his debut. His 16 wickets for 136 were the third best figures in Test Cricket, after Jim Laker’s 19 for 90 for England against Australia and Syd Barnes’ 17-159 for England against South Africa. Hirwani and Bob Massie are the only two in Test history to take 16 wickets in a Test on debut. Hirwani’s efforts eclipsed Jasu Patel’s 14-124 as the best in a Test by an Indian.

Hirwani was not an athletic looking cricketer – short, with somewhat portly tendencies, bespectacled, he looked like a school teacher who had wandered out onto the playing field instead of the classroom. But he had good control, a good googly and could turn his leg breaks far more than his successor Anil Kumble did.

He was the traditional, old fashioned wrist-spinner – slow, subtle and flighty, deadly on a turning track. Coming from Indore, he played most of his first-class cricket for Madhya Pradesh and Central Zone. By the time he retired, he had picked up 723 wickets in first-class cricket. And yet, despite a fantastic first Test followed by 3 more Tests in which he captured 20 wickets, Hirwani ended up with a modest 66 wickets in 17 Tests till he faded away from the Test scene in 1996. That is to say that whilst his first four Tests resulted in 36 wickets, his next 13 only got him 30. He was better than statistics show him up to be.

His problem was that his type of bowling wasn’t suited for most of the pitches abroad, he didn’t get the grip from the wicket in, say, England, that he could get on Indian pitches. His forte was flight and spin, he wasn’t a master of the variations and needed help from the pitch to be lethal. To add to that was the fact that he was a poor batsman and a liability as a fielder.

Perhaps he also lacked the hunger, the attacking instincts and consistency of a Warne or a Kumble. There can, of course, be no doubt that on those few days in January, 1988 at the Chidambaram Stadium, Madras, his skills were too good for a formidable batting line-up of Haynes, Simmons, Richardson, Richards, Logie, Hooper and Dujon. In Ravi Shastri, his skipper that day, he had a fellow spinner who understood the needs of the leg-spinner and supported him with the right fields and nursed, cajoled and encouraged him. A pity that a strategist and thinker like Shastri was destined not to have a long stint as an Indian captain – he would’ve been very good.

Hirwani graduated from Indore Christian College, the alma mater of legendary singer – actor Kishore Kumar, hockey goal keeper Mir Ranjan Negi (Chak De) and Raj Singh Dungarpur. Whilst a lot of young Indians may not know about or recognize him, his name will be remembered by his college, his hometown, his state for a long time to come.

And yes, Viv Richards and his team mates on that 1987-88 tour will certainly not forget the “school teacher” who gave them a lesson to remember.