The Greatest Player of Every Decade

The 1890s:

Ranji: A classy player who changed the game

Kumar Shri Ranjitsinhji (ENG)

As the twentieth century dawned, the runs batsmen were scoring began to rise, and few scored runs as freely and elegantly as Kumar Shri Ranjitsinhji.

India wouldn't play their first Test until 1932, yet Ranji, an Indian prince, gave the cricketing world an early taste of what his country of origin would offer the game.

Ranji's technique was unlike anything the game had seen before. He is credited with introducing strokes such as the late cut and the leg glance to the game, shots that now over a century later are commonplace in the game.

Yet unlike other lauded players of his time such as Victor Trumper and Pelham Warner, Ranji had the statistics to support the myth. Ranji only played his first game in the 1890s in 1896, but he made up for lost time by scoring 970 runs at 53.88 in the 12 Tests he played in this decade.

This made him the fourth top scorer of the 1890s with an average comfortably higher than anyone else who played 20 innings during this particular period in time.

Ranji's first-class record is equally as impressive, as he scored 24692 runs at an average of 56.37, including 72 centuries.

While Ranji's career wasn't curtailed as cruelly short as Bates, he was similarly forced to retire because of an injury to his eye. Ranji actually lost his eye in a shooting accident, and though he tried to continue in the first-class arena, he was only a shadow of the batsman he had once been

After Ranji's retirement, Neville Cardus summed up his immense contribution to the game stating that "When Ranji passed out of cricket, a wonder and a glory departed from the game forever."

Ranji would pass away in 1933, India having played their first ever Test just the previous year.