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His father wished him to study mathematics so that he could become an engineer, but he preferred to play cricket. A left-handed batsman, he made his first-class debut for Mumbai in 1958-9. He made his Test cricket debut in December 1966, against the West Indian cricket team at his home ground, the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai. He was soon a regular in the Indian team, and played 37 Test matches for India between 1966 and 1974, generally batting at number 3. He was also a fine slip fielder. He became captain of Mumbai, and became Indian captain in 1971, leading a side that included Sunil Gavaskar, M. L. Jaisimha, Gundappa Viswanath, Abid Ali, Farokh Engineer, and the Indian spin quartet (Bishen Bedi, E.A.S. Prasanna, Bhagwat Chandrasekhar, Srinivasaraghavan Venkataraghavan). He was immediately successful, becoming the first Indian captain to achieve series victories on tours to the West Indies and in England, winning both tours 1-0 in 1971. His team won over 5 matches in the West Indies in early 1971, and then beat England over 3 matches. He led India to a third successive series victory, beating England cricket team 2-1 again in a 5-match series in 1972-3. The team went into their tour against England in 1974 at the height of their power, but lost all 5 of their matches against England by wide margins in the "Summer of 42" (referring to the Indian second innings total in the 2nd Test at Lord's). Blamed for the failure, and facing problems at home, as Mumbai lost the Irani Trophy, Ranji Trophy and Duleep Trophyin 1973-4, he resigned as Indian captain, and retired from first-class cricket. Later, he served as the manager of Indian Cricket team in the 1990s, alongside captain Mohammad Azharuddin. Ajit Wadekar is one of the few Indians to represent the country as Test cricket player, captain, coach/manager and Chairman of Selectors. Lala Amarnath was the first to achieve this distinction. Chandu Borde is the other person to have achieved this distinction. |
