Narendra Hirwani's debut in International Cricket

Narendra Hirwani was a leg-spinner who used to turn the ball square and had a magical wrist and made news in the cricketing world for his debut. He used to bring in variations in his bowling which made him even more difficult to play. But after a bang his career was restricted to only domestic cricket. He was last selected for India for the 2001 series against Australia where he did not get any chance to play. He became an overnight sensation, but sadly his downfall was even faster. The guy with specs and a headband was a serious potential but after 17 Tests, he was not able to do what he was really capable of.

Narendra moved to Indore as an young kid and played for Madhya Pradesh with his constant hard work. He was an instant hit in the domestic circuit with a five wicket haul on his first class debut, and became a consistent performer for MP. He was selected for the India U-25 side where he picked up 6 wickets and booked a place in the Test team.

After warming the benches for the first three matches of the series, Hirwani was finally picked up for the last Test match on Jan 11,1988 at Chepauk, when India were trailing 0-1 in the series. He replaced Maninder Singh who was also an overnight sensation when he made his debut at the age of 17 and later faded away. India did well to post over 300 runs on an underprepared track, but when the Windies came out to bat, the debutant Hirwani made full use of the track and started turning the ball, constantly beating the batsmen by a big margin. More than the turn, it was his variations which were doing the trick. He went on to pick up 8 wickets in the first innings. India again batted well and set a target of over four hundred for the visitors to chase. This time around, the West Indians decided to attack Hirwani and this resulted in their downfall with More having five stumpings to his name. Hirwani again took 8 wickets in the innings, ending a fantasy debut with 16 wickets in the match.

He also made his ODI debut against the West Indies that followed after his debut Test series, but this time around the Windies were just sensibly and cautiously watching him out. In his 10 overs he gave only 34 runs but couldn’t take any wicket.

After the West Indies series, he was also very successful against New Zealand at home, but once he moved out of spinner friendly Indian wickets, Hirwani looked very ordinary in England and West Indies. The Caribbean batsmen took charge against him and totally demoralized the young spinner by tearing him apart. Later he was dropped from the Indian side and was sidelined as Anil Kumble emerged in the scenes.

Hirwani also holds the record in Tests for bowling the most number of overs unchanged without a break when he bowled 59 overs against England.