A new edition of Indian Summers, my compendium of writings on cricket between India and Australia, has just gone on sale in India, via Westland Books.
Here’s a sample: my tribute to leg-spinner Bhagwat Chandrasekhar, recently turned eighty, and still sui generis.
Lightning proverbially never strikes twice in the same place. The Boxing Day Test of 1977 is an exception. Leading 2–0 in the series, Australia were two for 122 on the second afternoon chasing India’s 256, only to barely take the game into a fifth day, thanks to cricket as scintillating as it was symmetrical. Bhagwat Chandrasekhar was already an Indian matchwinner, having bewildered England away and the West Indies at home. Here his 34.1 eight-ball overs resulted in analyses of six for 52 and six for 52; a wretched batter, he was also dismissed by each of the two balls he faced in the match. There have perhaps been more remarkable all-round performances, but none so uniform.
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