When Azharuddin was the Lord of Lord’s!!

Mohammad Azharuddin's iconic 121 against England at Lord's in 1990 remains one of his top career knocks, showcasing elegance under pressure, and he later fulfilled his father’s dream of a century there

Hyderabad: Thirty-five years ago, Hyderabadi Mohammad Azharuddin was the “Lord of Lord’s”!

Azhar played arguably one of the best innings ever by an Indian batter in England when he notched up a scintillating 121 off just 111 balls with 22 exquisitely struck fours in a Test match against England in 1990, though in a lost cause.

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By all means, it was a captain’s innings—literally—and this after England captain Graham Gooch had nailed the Indian attack on his way to a flamboyant triple century.

For Azhar, it remains one of his “most unforgettable innings.” “I should rank it among the top three in my career,” says Azhar when he looks back at that stunning knock.

So, when the Shubman Gill-led India begins its five-Test series campaign tomorrow at Leeds, Azhar’s knock could well serve as one of those gentle reminders, like the great Sunil Gavaskar’s epic 221 at The Oval in the 1979 series, when Indians held their own in seemingly difficult batting conditions.

By his own confession, Azhar simply enjoyed the challenges on the given day and also his batting, which is pretty much evident to all those who had seen it. It was just his day at Lord’s, on the way to that brilliant century.

In fact, the current generation might not be aware that Azhar, in a way, fulfilled his father’s dream of scoring a century at Lord’s, which is, in a way, every cricketer’s dream at the “Mecca of Cricket.”

No doubt, Azhar, as a captain, was under fire for putting England in to bat. In that context, the wristy elegance he showed during that century was also a way of paying back the critics with the willow.

The former India captain also happened to be the only batter from the Subcontinent to score more than 2,500 runs for Derbyshire in the 1991 season during that dream run. In the next season, he scored about 1,500 runs in the first half of the season before returning to India for the Sri Lanka series.

Those were the days when any batter who was successful in English county cricket was deemed fit to take on the best bowlers around, such were the demanding conditions then.

By all means, Azhar left an indelible mark on world cricket with that Lord’s hundred. No doubt, he had a special affinity for English bowling, having hit a world record-breaking three consecutive centuries in his first three Tests against David Gower-led England in the 1985 series at home.