Amazing Grace
Once the ball was set rolling, there was no stopping it. ”At the all-India Roshan Ara tournament in Delhi, I took three good catches as a substitute. The Maharaja of Vizianagram (Vizzy) was so impressed that he arranged for my training at Benares.”
This was where Mushtaq Ali came into his own as one of the most attacking batsmen to wear national colors. Interestingly, Jack Hobbs and Herbert Sutcliffe were also members of the same team that Mushtaq played for, at Benares. Vizzy also organized a tour of various Indian cities and Ceylon. ”I had begun as a left-arm bowler, but later, batting was to be my forte.”
Mushtaq, the batsman, was known for his total disregard for the grammar and syntax of batting; to him, it mattered little whether a ball outside the off stump was played to cover or square leg, as long as it crashed past the ropes.
Though India made her Test debut in 1932 in England, Mushtaq was not included in that team. But when the side returned and was asked to play a match against the Rest of India at Delhi, he was selected.
Mushtaq was soon selected to play for India. The MCC were touring India in 1933-34 under Douglas Jardine and he was selected for the second Test played at Calcutta. He became the youngest Test player to play for India, at 19 years and 19 days. The record was to stand for 20 years until 1955-56.
Mushtaq was selected primarily as a bowler, but got only one wicket for 45 runs in the first innings. ”My first Test wicket was that of Jardine. I used to wear a sola topee while bowling and at the point of delivery, my hand touched that hat by accident. The ball pitched short, and Jardine spooned it to C.S. Nayudu as cover.”
A successful tour of England was then a must for a cricketer to establish himself as a player of reckoning. And the acid test for Mushtaq was round the corner. The Indian team went to a full tour of England in 1936.
Out of the 28 first class matches the team played, only four ended in India’s favour, the rest divided equally between draws and defeats. But Mushtaq emerged glorious. The young bowler faded into oblivion and made way for one of India’s main batsman. He scored over 1000 runs, which included four centuries at Lord’s, The Oval, Old Trafford and Scarborough.
”It was at Lords that I got my first century of the tour against Minor Counties.” In the process, he also became the first Indian to score a century in England.
From 1944-45 onwards, the Holkar team reached the Ranji finals 10 times in 11 years, clinching the trophy on four occasions.
But the red letter day for him was July27, 1936. ”For me, it remains the golden day of my life. It was not because I scored my first Test century, but because I batted to my heart’s content, with complete command over the best of English bowling.”
India was trailing behind by 268 runs when the tall Mushtaq and the short Vijay Merchant walked in to open the second innings. Despite the mammoth deficit, runs started flowing at will.
Any young cricketer nearing his maiden hundred would have been a bundle of nerves. But not Mushtaq. As he moved into the nineties, the English skipper walked up to him in said, ‘My boy, cast off the impetuosity and get your hundred first.’ His hundred came a few minutes before draw of stumps. At the end of the day, Mushtaq remained unbeaten on 106. Merchant was 79.