Brave Hearts

Author(s): Kumarpal Desai
Publisher: Eye Care Foundation

Page 98

A Man of Grit And Determination his test career and became India's fourth bowler to do so next only to Vinoo Mankad, E. S. Prasanna and Bishensingh Bedi. He was the eighth Indian player whose name found a place in Wisden in 1971. He was given the Arjun Award in 1972.
Chandrashekhar had deceived some of the best batsmen of the world by combining his leg breaks, googly and top spin deliveries. His bowling was so tricky and devastating that even the top batsman like Sunil
Bhagwat Chandrashekhar Gavaskar conceded that he (Gavaskar) could judge his googly all right, but as far as his other deliveries were concerned he used to face them only with prayers on his lips ! Chandrashekhar's deliveries used to acquire such a speed after being pitched at the crease that many considered him a medium pace bowler. Vivian Richards of the West Indies on tour of India in the year 1976 was credited with saying that Chandrashekhar's deliveries were as speedy as those of the Australian fast bowler Thompson. Thus Chandrashekhar had put so much power and force in his paralysis-affected right hand that even the best batting teams of the world used to suffer the strokes of paralysis, so to say, while facing him ! Looking at his right hand, one wonders how he had taken 242 wickets in 58 test matches by sending just 15,963 deliveries ! Fantastic indeed !
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