Dilip Doshi, an unusual Test cricketer in every way, passed away on June 24, 2025.
Nothing about Dilip Doshi was in tune with the average Indian cricketer. Absolutely nothing.
For example, Doshi debuted just before his 32nd birthday, in late 1979. Bishan Singh Bedi had kept his rivals out of the Test XI for more than a decade. By the time Bedi retired, Dhiraj Parsana’s batting (and ability to switch to seam) helped him get the nod. It was only after the selectors moved on from Parsana that “younger” Doshi was preferred ahead of Padmakar Shivalkar, 39, and Rajinder Goel, 37.
Doshi is the last Indian specialist bowler to have debuted that late in his life. There is more to be read into that italicised word, for he was “negligible” with the bat, and famously slow in the field. His not-too-athletic physique and thick-rimmed spectacles gave him a look one does not usually associate with cricketers.
But Doshi could bowl. He bowled 85 overs and claimed eight wickets on Test debut. Both numbers are Indian records for any debutant of age 26 or more... in other words, anyone within five years of Doshi.
Doshi also finished with 114 Test wickets. To this date he is one of six cricketers (and only Indian) with a hundred Test wickets despite having debuted after his 30th birthday.
But it was not only the numbers that made Doshi remarkable, even unique.
Doshi was part of India’s first Test win against a full-strength Australian side in Australia, at Melbourne in 1980/81. While Australia were at full-strength, India were not: three of their four bowlers were injured. India began their defence of 143 without Kapil Dev (who returned the next morning) and Shivlal Yadav (ruled out of the Test). Doshi picked up 2-33 in 22 overs after his 3-109 in 52 overs in the first innings.
The figures, while impressive, do not stand out – unless one adds one vital bit of information: he had started the Test match with a fractured left foot. To prove he was match fit, Doshi had bowled in the nets with utmost care, ensuring he did not put weight on his left leg. Having cleared this fitness test, Doshi requested the team management to be allowed to field at mid-on. The request was turned down.
So Doshi prepared for the Test by applying electrodes every evening to manage the swelling. And at the Test, he had to field in the deep, running around (in his own way, of course) and bowling 74 overs of left-arm spin without putting pressure on that left foot.
At the core of the team management was captain Sunil Gavaskar, with whom Doshi famously did not get along. At a press conference on the same tour, Gavaskar lavishly praised Kapil and Yadav. When the media asked “what about Doshi?”, the Indian captain asked back the same three words. Ravi Shastri’s age, batting ability, and willingness to go up the batting order helped him earn a place ahead of Doshi.
Doshi did not hold back his feeling either. Gavaskar was “bogged down in personal likes and dislikes,” he felt, and called him “either evasive or flippant.” His career ended in 1983. Maninder Singh, his successor, did not get a hundred Test wickets; neither did Venkatapathy Raju, who followed Maninder; or Murali Kartik, who followed Raju. Pragyan Ojha did, but fell short of Doshi’s tally. It was not until Ravindra Jadeja that India found another left-arm spinner who could surpass the man who debuted at 31.
But even that does not tell why the story of Doshi was unique. Indian cricketers have told their tales, but few have been as candid as Doshi in Spin Punch. He accused the Indian team for their “one-track obsession” with making money. “Cricket was discussed only as an afterthought,” he felt after a team-meeting where the conversation revolved around sponsorships and match fees.
Dosh also called the BCCI “a government within a government, almost totally not accountable to anyone”. Had he been playing today, his outspokenness would probably have truncated his already-brief career.
But it would probably not have mattered: his foray into the world of business was at least as successful. Ask Indians of the 1990s, for whom he made the Mont Blanc pen a status symbol.
There was never another Indian cricketer like Dilip Doshi. There will never be.
