Sometimes a debut is such that history is made in just a few overs. Narendra Hirwani did the same thing 37 years ago on the pitch of Madras (now Chennai). The leg spinner came into India’s jersey and destroyed a great team like West Indies. Not just his debut, but his performance immortalized a moment in Indian cricket forever.
Born in Gorakhpur, Hirwani turned 57 today (18 October). He could not play many matches for India in his international cricket career (17 Tests – 66 wickets, 18 ODIs – 23 wickets). But when he made his debut, he created history.
magic of 37 years ago
Year 1988… Test match was going on between India and West Indies (11-15 January). A 19 year old young man entered the field – chubby body, thick glasses and a weapon of leg spin in his hand. No one had imagined that this young man would write such a story in the history of Indian cricket, which is remembered even today.
Hirwani took 8 wickets in the first innings… again 8 wickets in the second – i.e. a total of 16 wickets were taken for 136 runs in the test match. His bowling analysis was 33.5-6-136-16, which became the world record for ‘best figure’ in a Test match debut. This continues even today.
Talking about excellent bowling in the debut test, Australia’s fast bowler Bob Massey also took 8 wickets each (against England, Lord’s 1972) i.e. 16 wickets. For this he had spent 137 runs, while Hirwani took 16 wickets for 136 runs.
…stumping feat
The magic of his second innings was even more special. 5 out of 8 batsmen were stumped by wicketkeeper Kiran More. This world record of most stumpings in an innings still stands today. Legends like Viv Richards and Desmond Haynes looked helpless that day.
India won this match by 255 runs. But the real victory belonged to the young man who engraved his name in the history book on the strength of determination and skill hidden behind the glasses.
Challenges in international career
Still, the game of cricket is sometimes cruel. After taking 36 wickets in the first four Tests, Hirwani had to struggle on foreign pitches. He got only 21 wickets in the next 9 tests. The magic diminished. But the glow of his debut always remained alive.
This is how domestic cricket was
Hirwani was also a pillar in domestic cricket. He took 723 wickets in 167 first-class matches. Of these, more than 400 came to his home state Madhya Pradesh. Playing for Bengal in the 1996-97 season, he took 29 wickets at an average of 23.13.
After ending his 23-year long first-class career in 2006, he became part of the national selection committee in 2008.
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