Dilip Doshi obituary: The ‘student of the game’ who became a bowler of ‘extraordinary skills’

DOSHI, DILIP RASIKLAL, died on June 23, aged 77. By the time he made his Test debut for India, at Madras in September 1979, Doshi was 31 – and boiling with frustration at being made to wait. He soon made up for lost time. Australia had been cruising at 297-2, until he struck with his first ball of the second day. The last six wickets fell for 58, and he had 6-103. The dismissal of Dav Whatmore, caught in the gully, was especially satisfying. “The ball came off a length, as if propelled by a force more violent than the snap of a spinner’s fingers,” reported Dilip Rao in The Guardian. Doshi remembered: “When the call came, it was an unbelievable moment. In those days, people were considered old at 28 or 29.” By the end of the series, he had 27 wickets at 21, and India their first series win against Australia. He immediately collected another 18 at home against Pakistan, dismissing Javed Miandad four times.

Doshi was a cerebral left-arm spinner in the classical tradition. Jogging in off seven paces, and always wearing glasses, he bowled wicket to wicket with a mastery of flight and a deep understanding of his art. The Indian writer Suresh Menon thought he resembled “an absent-minded professor who knew he had found a solution to the problem the previous day but couldn’t recall where he had left his work”. Doshi was always willing to share his plethora of theories: “You have to be a student of the game to be a good spinner.”

The son of an economics professor, he was born in Rajkot, but grew up in Calcutta. A few days after his 11th birthday, he watched enraptured as Garry Sobers scored a century at Eden Gardens. His father, also a left-hander, encouraged his interest in the game, but there was no formal coaching. “As long as I can remember, I wanted to bowl spin,” he said. “I think I was a natural spinner of the ball. From the ages of six or seven I was always playing with a cricket ball.” He made his first-class debut, for the State Bank of India against Vazir Sultan Tobacco Colts at Hyderabad, in October 1968, and two months later played his first Ranji Trophy match for Bengal.

India and England players are wearing black armbands to honour Dilip Doshi, who passed away on Monday night, aged 77. #ENGvIND #Cricket pic.twitter.com/Bvs1FnVxkN

— Wisden (@WisdenCricket) June 24, 2025

Doshi came to England in 1973 to play for Meltham in the Huddersfield League. On the recommendation of Sobers, he also had two games for Nottinghamshire, and the following year found himself facing the Indian tourists at Trent Bridge: he dismissed Gundappa Viswanath twice, though the county did not offer him a contract. In 1977, he was recruited as Nottinghamshire’s second overseas player, alongside Clive Rice, and took 82 wickets. Despite being the county’s leading wicket-taker in 1978, Doshi was released after the arrival of Richard Hadlee, just as he was about to launch his Test career.

The pre-eminence of Bishan Bedi and the rest of India’s fabled spin quartet meant he was one of several slow bowlers whose ambitions were frustrated, though he always believed Bedi later retained his place on reputation rather than results. “A lot of obstacles were put in my way,” he told Murali Kartik, another Indian slow left-armer. “But I had great belief in myself. I have gone through walls all my career.”

Doshi remained especially proud of his performance in India’s 59-run win at the MCG in 1980/81. He had a broken toe, lied to captain Sunil Gavaskar about the extent of the injury, and bowled 74 overs: “I didn’t leave the field for a second, and took five wickets in the match.” Doshi also took 5-39 in England’s first innings of the First Test at Bombay in 1981/82, setting up an Indian win in the only positive result of a turgid six-match series. His best Test figures – 6-102 – came at Old Trafford in 1982. Against Sri Lanka at Madras later in the year, he matched Clarrie Grimmett’s record of taking 100 Test wickets having made his debut after 30 (six others have done it since). Yet his Test career was coming to an end. He was dropped in Pakistan in 1982/83, and played just once more. “When Bedi became a selector,” said Doshi, “the first thing he did was drop me.”

At the Golden Jubilee Test in Bombay early in 1980, Doshi got talking to Bob Willis, newly appointed as Warwickshire captain, and ended up spending the summer at Edgbaston. Their bowling resources were threadbare, and Doshi bowled 961.2 first-class overs, taking 101 wickets at 26. Only Surrey’s Robin Jackman picked up more. “He was a fantastic bowler – the control, the variation, the subtlety,” recalled team-mate John Claughton. “His skill level was extraordinary. He never let us down.”

With his accuracy and tight lines, Doshi was a miserly and effective performer in one-day cricket. He bowled Hertfordshire to victory over Essex at Hitchin in 1976 and, for Nottinghamshire against Northamptonshire in the Sunday League in 1977, he had the remarkable figures of 8-7-1-1. Before the next game, against Kent at Canterbury, Doshi was chatting to Derek Underwood when captain Mike Smedley told him he had been dropped. “You were too expensive last time,” Underwood quipped. At Warwickshire – where his glasses instantly earned him the nickname Joe 90, after a bespectacled children’s TV character – they tolerated his hopeless batting, pedestrian fielding and endless tinkering with the field. They had finished bottom of the Sunday League in 1979, but Doshi delivered an inspiring pep talk: “Let’s play every game as a final.” He took 21 wickets at 20, and Warwickshire pipped Somerset to the title.

Doshi retired after one season with Saurashtra in 1985/86, finishing with 898 first-class wickets (only five Indians – all spinners – had more). He embarked on a successful business career, importing spare parts for the construction industry; he later moved into luxury goods, helping establish Montblanc pens in India. He lived in England for many years, where his son Nayan, also a slow left-armer, played for Surrey and Derbyshire. Meanwhile, Doshi became great friends with Mick Jagger, attending over 400 Rolling Stones concerts. His autobiography, Spin Punch, written in four weeks, was critical of some former India team-mates, and claimed that team meetings contained more discussions
about money than tactics. A few days before his death, he was a guest of MCC president Lord King at the World Test Championship final. In the committee room, he bumped into Claughton. “If you gave him the chance, he could tell you about every wicket he had ever taken,” he recalled. “He was still claiming 44 years later that he could have got Javed out in a match against Glamorgan at Cardiff, if only he’d been given the right field.”

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