SK Flashback: Remembering the life and times of Vijay Hazare on his birthday

The shy captain – ‘A tragedy’

Hazare standing beside Len Hutton for the toss

After the Australian series in 1947-48, post independence, Hazare was given the responsibility of leading the side in 1951. Although he led India to a victory against England in 1951/52, it was his only victory as captain. Such was the stint of his captaincy that Vijay Merchant, his long-time rival and teammate, tagged his captaincy career as ‘tragic’ although Hazare had managed to keep up a healthy average while wielding the bat.

Hazare captained the Indian team for just 14 matches from 1951-53. His first full series was against England at home and he continued his good form, striking form with two centuries from two games. However, a slight miscommunication with manager CK Nayudu led to Hazare losing all his confidence and could not continue his good form for the remainder of the series.

Yet, on the occasion of India’s silver jubilee match (25th match), Hazare produced two of his grittiest innings against a red-hot bowling line-up to help India clinch it's first ever test match victory, by an innings and eight runs.

Never a man who was acknowledged for his captaincy skills, his captaincy was put under the scanner when India toured England in 1952 but was routed 0-3, crushed by the strong performances of England’s premier pacer Freddie Trueman and assisted by his new-ball partner Alec Bedser.

Nevertheless, Hazare went on piling runs albeit India lost all three games and ended with 333 runs at an average of 55.50 including three half-centuries that placed him amongst some of the greatest cricketers.

Sadly, his form as a captain never rubbed off on his team-mates and the calls for his ouster from captaincy was heard loud and clear. As Vijay Merchant later said, “Hazare was always a disciplined soldier, never a commander. Captaincy affected his otherwise unflagging concentration and he was never the same batsman again”.