England's Third Indian Prince

[fredfertang]

England's Third Indian Prince

After profiles of Ranji and Duleep Martin finishes his look at the Indian Princes who have played for England with the story of Iftikhar Ali Khan, the Nawab of Pataudi Senior

 

[the big bambino]

Thanks for another great article fred. Imagine if Duleep and Pataudi snr were fit and available for India at the time. They could have fielded quite a side in the day: Merchant, Mushtaq Ali, Duleep, Pataudi, CK Nayudu, Amarnath, Mankad (in the latter part of the decade and possibly Ram Singh before him), Dilawar Hussein, Amar Singh, Md Nissar, Ramji/Banerjee.

Some great names there and the back up crew weren't too shabby either.

 

[fredfertang]

Quite a side that one, and there was Jahangir Khan as well, a much better cricketer than his disappointing Test record suggests - curious that the weakness is in the spin department

 

[the big bambino]

Yes the spin was bare until Mankad later in the decade. Probably they would have played Jamshedi (spelling probably wrong) in a holding pattern until he came along and after CK's brother had proven himself not good enough at test level.

I think an overlooked gem is Ram Singh whose fc record is good and was a capable bat. In many ways foreshadowing Mankad himself. I don't know why he wasn't picked but for practically every inexplicable occurrence in Indian cricket of the time you could safely assume political reasons.