Vijay Hazare. One of India’s greatest batsmen. Former captain. Fighting player. Those who stay ahead in difficult times. Vijay Hazare is always remembered for his performance on the 1947–48 tour of Australia. This was the tour in which he showed a glimpse of his steadfast spirit and brilliant batting even in difficult times.
He played 30 tests for India. He was the captain in 14 of these. Vijay Merchant and Vijay Hazare gave a new identity to Indian cricket. Hazare had to wait for his international debut due to World War II. Due to this, he played his first test at the age of 31. Made his debut against England in Lord’s Test in 1946. Then in 1953 he played for India for the last time. Till then he had scored 2192 runs at an average of 47.65. He scored seven Test centuries and nine half-centuries. His highest score was 164 runs not out. Today is Vijay Hazare’s birthday.
Vijay Hazare was born on 11 March 1915 in Sangli, Maharashtra. His father was a school teacher. Vijay Hazare was a right-handed batsman and medium fast bowler. When he was progressing rapidly in cricket, international cricket came to a halt due to the Second World War. That’s why his debut took time. But even during this time, he continued to entertain the audience with his play in domestic cricket. During this period, a lot of credit goes to him for keeping cricket alive in India. 20-30 thousand spectators used to gather at Brabourne Stadium in Bombay to watch his batting. Vijay Hazare scored 1423 runs in the 1943-44 season. During this, he played innings of 248, 59, 309, 101, 223 and 87 runs in four matches. With this he reached 1000 runs in four matches.
His innings of 309 runs was very memorable. Hazare played this innings while playing against the Hindu team. The interesting thing was that despite his triple century, his team was out for 387 runs. That means the remaining batsmen could score only 78 runs. Due to this his team lost by an innings. He used to compete with Vijay Merchant in batting. Because of this, a struggle was seen between the two to make a big score. Hazare played first-class cricket for a long time. He played domestic cricket for about 33 years. During this period, he scored 18740 runs in 238 matches with the help of 60 centuries and 73 half-centuries. During this period his average was 58.38. Here he also took 595 wickets. Eight wickets for 90 runs was his best performance in an innings. He last played first class cricket in 1967 at the age of 51. In domestic cricket, Hazare ranks fourth among Indian cricketers in terms of first-class average, after Sunil Gavaskar, Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid. He was the first Indian batsman to score a triple century in first class. Dalip Singhji also did this feat but he is considered an English cricketer.
Hazare is mainly remembered for his batting but his medium pace bowling was also no less. When needed, he used to take charge with the ball. He toured India in Australia in 1947–48. On this tour he dismissed Don Bradman twice. However, Bradman did score a double century in one match. But in the match played in Sydney, he bowled Bradman for 13 runs. In this test, India took the lead in the series for the first time. On the same tour, Hazare scored centuries in both innings in Adelaide. He played innings of 116 and 145 runs. He became the first Indian to score centuries in both innings of a Test. But the rest of the batsmen could not perform like that. India lost this test by an innings and 16 runs.
Then in 1952, when the Indian team went to England under the captaincy of Hazare, India lost four wickets without opening the account in front of Fred Trueman in the second innings of the Leeds Test. In such a situation, Captain Hazare along with Dattu Phadkar saved the team from embarrassment. Both of them scored half-centuries and took the team beyond 100 runs. However, India lost the match by an innings.
After this he scored three centuries in three consecutive Test matches against West Indies and England. But this century was made between 1949 and 1951 i.e. three years. Because at that time India could not play cricket continuously like today. Out of 30 Test matches played by Hazare, India could win only three matches. India got a victory under his captaincy.
It is said that he was not a natural captain. Captaincy had an impact on his batting. It is said that if he had not been made the captain, his batting would have been even better. His teammate Vijay Merchant also said that Hazare could have been India’s best batsman. This is the saddest incident of cricket. He died in 2004 at the age of 89. Today BCCI organizes its List A domestic cricket tournament i.e. Vijay Hazare Trophy, a 50-over tournament, in his name.