25 Unbelievable facts about Indian cricket

19. Lala Amarnath - The first Indian to score a Test century for the country

Lala Amarnath

Lala Amarnath Bharadwaj was the first captain of independent India. He led the team in its first Test win against Pakistan in 1952. Lala only played three games before World War II and thus lost a majority of his prime years as India did not play any official Tests at that point in time. Later on, he went on to play another 21 Tests for the team.

Also, he is the first batsman to score a Test century for India. In 24 Tests, Lala scored 878 runs at an average of 24.38 including one century and four half-centuries. Furthermore, he picked up 45 wickets at the highest level.

He played 184 first-class games in his career including teams from Australia and England. He scored 10,426 runs and picked up 463 wickets and is known to be one of the finest all-rounders of the game. Lala Amarnath also has two stumpings to his name in first-class cricket.