Veteran Indian spinner Dilip Doshi passes away at 77 in London

Veteran Indian spinner Dilip Doshi has passed away at 77 in London. A late bloomer who made his Test debut at 32, he went on to take 114 wickets in 33 Tests and had a distinguished domestic and county career.

HYDERABAD: One of India’s finest left-arm spinners, Dilip Doshi, passed away in London due to cardiac arrest. He was 77.

He is survived by his wife Kalindi, son Nayan, who played for Surrey in English county cricket and Saurashtra, and daughter Vishakha.

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Doshi shot into prominence after the ‘Fabulous Four’ of Indian spin bowling – Bishen Bedi, Erapalli Prasanna, BS Chandrasekhar and Srinivas Venkatraghavan – had quietly faded away post 1979 England tour.

He made his Test debut at the age of 32 against Australia in the 1979 Chennai Test and claimed six for 103 in the first innings and returned with an eight-wicket haul in the match.

For the record, Doshi played 33 Tests and 15 ODIs between 1979-83 claiming 114 wickets in Tests and 22 in ODIs. He also authored his autobiography ‘Spin Punch’.

Incidentally, Doshi was the first spinner outside the famous quartet of spin to take 100 Test wickets.

He played for Saurashtra and Bengal in domestic cricket and had a long and distinguished stint with Nottinghamshire and Warwickshire in country cricket in England to finish his first-class career with 898 wickets.