Any sportsman will have his share of ups and downs in his career and some just fade away into oblivion after facing a drop in form. This feature is more prominent in cricket, where one needs to concentrate on the game for much longer duration (than in any other sport) during the course of the match. Now-a-days, we label Sourav Ganguly and Virender Sehwag as the great come back men of Indian cricket as these cricketers have resurrected their careers with wonderful performances against the Aussies down under in the recently concluded test series. However there were cricketers in the recent past who, not only made valiant come backs but also played a calm and significant role in javelining the Indian cricket to the present dizzy heights. Given below is a brief description of one such cricketer.
Indian cricket was in a fix in the early eighties because, for the first time, it appeared that it’s batting started to revolve singly around that genius, Sunil Gavaskar, as the other stalwart, Gundappa Vishwanath suddenly lost form after his valiant double century filled knocks against the visiting Englishmen in the1981 series. At the same time, another gritty player was rediscovering his magic touch in the domestic matches. He was tearing the bowling attacks to shreds in the Ranji Trophy matches. He was previously felled by a bouncer in a test match against West Indies some three years back and later dropped from the side. He was none other than Mohinder Amarnath.
Those were the days when radio was the only means of having first hand information about what is going on in a test match and so when India went to Pakistan in 1982 for a five test series, all young boys like me were depressed to hear about the way the Indian batsmen surrendered so meekly against Imran Khan and his men and the bowlers were flayed by Zaheer Abbas, Javed Miandad and Mudassar Nazar, in the first two tests. Though Gavaskar was our favorite, we wanted some one else to fire and most of us pinned our hopes on Gundappa Vishwanath, but suddenly, he lost his touch and was out cheaply to Imran several times. Imran took forty wickets in the series as he sent several batsmen scurrying back to pavilion with his ferocious pace, swing and cut. The tour was a big disaster as most Indian batsmen failed to negotiate the Pakistani pace men. One man stood like a colossus amidst ruins and he was Mohinder Amarnath, as one commentator after the other gave a vivid description of how he stood up and hooked and pulled (the two most romantic shots in cricket, which are an epitome of bravery and grit) the Pakistani pace men. He scored more than 500 runs in that series but more importantly, scored a hundred in his first match on his return and then followed up with several beautiful knocks in the innings that followed. Thus from being a doubtful starter, he became a saviour and an important member of the Indian team.
Next, the tour to the West Indies followed sans Gundappa Vishwanath and against the fiery West Indian pace bowling of Holding, Marshall, Roberts and Garner, the Indian batsmen failed miserably and again it was left to Mohinder Amarnath to salvage some pride. He again scored more than 500 runs in that series as he stood like a one-man-army against the West Indian Pace quartet. Again he proved that it is the hook and the pull which are going to be the answer to “fight blood with blood”. Though he was supported ably by Sunil Gavaskar in that series, the other Indian batsmen failed and the tour proved to be a disaster.
Mohinder, who was affectionately called Jimmy, had his most glorious moments in the 1983 world cup in England. He made an important 26 in the low-scoring final against West Indies and bowled beautifully to claim 3 wickets with his slow medium stuff in that all important win and whenever, the recorded match is shown in T.Vs one can relish even now, his slow, slumbering walk and run up to wicket and that slinging final swirl of his arm to deliver the ball. He was rightly the man of the match and pinnacled in his come back bid.
The next series against the West Indies at home proved to be a big disaster to both him and the Indian team. The very shots that earned him name and fame, the hook and the pull, deceived him very badly, as he scored a string of zeroes and ones and his series scores of 1, 0, 0,01,0 resembled more like a Delhi Pin code or a phone number. As the main pillar cracked the slab caved in and thus the series was won very easily by the West Indies. He was again dropped.
As it turned out that his career was about to end, he was selected to tour Pakistan in 1984, as the selectors might have thought of giving him one last chance. Now there was no Imran but the other bowlers like Azim Hafiz and Jalaluddin were deceptively quick. Again, when he took guard there was a big hush amongst our friends. He scored a laborious century but cemented his place in the Indian team up to the World cup in 1987.In the mean time, he played a key role in 1985 Benson and Hedges World Series cup win, the Series victory against England in England in 1986 etc. After the world cup in 1987, he was again dropped but later on returned to play significant innings in 1990 against the visiting Kiwis and was again dropped finally for the tour to New Zealand as the selectors preferred youth over experience and there could be no more come back after that as he reached 40 by then. Thus the sagas of one of the greatest come back man of Indian cricket ended.

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