The Indian cricket team is mourning the passing away of their oldest Test cricketer Dattajirao Gaekwad by wearing black armbands on the Day 3 of their ongoing 3rd Test against England in Rajkot. Dattajirao died at 95 earlier this week due to age-related ailments.
India batting legend Sunil Gavaskar was a little unhappy that it took the BCCI three days to realise they should be paying tribute to Dattajirao who played 11 Tests between 1952 and 1961 while also leading them during the England tour of 1959.
“Better late than never… they should’ve done it on Day 1 but better late than never,” Gavaskar said while on commentary duties on Day 3. “He was captain of the Indian team in a five-match series. He captained four out of the five matches and the other one was captained by Pankaj Roy.”
The BCCI had condoled the passing away of Dattajirao, father of former India opener and coach Anshuman.
“The BCCI expresses its profound grief at the passing away of Dattajirao Gaekwad, former India captain and India’s oldest Test cricketer. He played in 11 Tests and led the team during India’s Tour of England in 1959. Under his captaincy, Baroda also won the Ranji Trophy in the 1957-58 season, beating Services in the final. The Board expresses its heartfelt condolences to Gaekwad’s family, friends, and admirers,” a post from the BCCI read on X *(formerly Twitter).
The right-hander made his debut against England at Leeds in 1952 and his final international game was against Pakistan in Chennai in 1961.
In the Ranji Trophy, Gaekwad represented Baroda from 1947 to 1961. He scored 3139 runs at an average of 47.56, including 14 hundreds.
His highest was a 249 not out against Maharashtra in the 1959-60 season. He became India’s oldest living Test cricketer in 2016 after the death of former batter Deepak Shodhan at the age of 87 in Ahmedabad.
With PTI Inputs
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