Mohinder Amarnath Cricketer
Mohinder Amarnath Bhardwaj pronunciation (born 24 September 1950) is a former Indian cricketer (1969–1989) and current cricket analyst. He is commonly known as "Jimmy". He is the son of Lala Amarnath, the first post-independence captain of India. His brother Surinder Amarnath was a Test player. His brother Rajinder Amarnath is a former first class cricket and current cricket coach. Mohinder made his debut against Australia at Chennai in December 1969. Mohinder was seen, in the latter part of his career, as the finest Indian batsman against express pace. Both Imran Khan and Malcolm Marshall have praised his batsmanship, courage and ability to endure and master pain. In 1982-83 Mohinder played 11 Test matches against Pakistan (5) and the West Indies (6) and scored over 1000 runs in the two series. In his "Idols", Sunil Gavaskar described Mohinder Amarnath as the finest batsman in the world. He made his first test century at Perth at the WACA (the fastest and bounciest wicket in the world) batting against Jeff Thomson at his fastest. He followed this test century with another 10 against top class fast bowling. Imran Khan regarded Mohinder so highly that in his "All Round View" he went on record to say that in the 1982-83 season, Mohinder was quite simply the best batsman in the world. Imran further went on to state that Mohinder should have played non-stop for India right from his debut in 1969 to the time he retired. Mohinder never had a steady place in the Indian test side. Others would play much worse than he did and never be dropped. Mohinder is known as the come back man of Indian cricket. During his two decades at the top, he was dropped from the Indian side on several occasions and every time he fought his way back with sterling performances. After his debut series he had to wait until 1975 to make it into the team. Mohinder made his debut in 1969 as a quick-bowling all rounder but at his peak, he was a top order batsman who always played at No. 3 for India. He was also handy with the ball, swinging and cutting the ball with great skill and control. Mohinder Amarnath played 69 Tests scoring 4,378 runs at an batting average of 42.50, with 11 hundreds and 24 fifties, and claimed 32 wickets at a bowling average of 55.68 apiece. In 85 One Day Internationals, he scored 1,924 runs at an average of 30.53 and a highest score of 102 n.o. and claimed 46 wickets at 42.84 apiece. Mohinder Amarnath is also the one and only Indian who has been dismissed on handling the ball. He was dismissed on 9 February 1986 also making him the first one to be dismissed for handling the ball in One-Day Internationals. He is also the only Indian to be dismissed for obstructing the field in One-Day Internationals.
