Top 5 comebacks by Indian players in Test cricket

1. Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi

Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi

As they say, “The greatest examples of motivation are seen either in war or sports”. There isn’t a better narrative epitomizing motivation in the gentleman’s game than the life of Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi.

Tiger Pataudi, as he was fondly called, was a keen learner of the game and started his first-class career playing county cricket in England. But as fate would have it, Pataudi was hardly 20 when he met with a deadly car accident that permanently impaired the vision of his right eye. Many thought this to be the end of a promising career as the batsman failed to pick even a glass in front of him.

The ‘Nawab of Pataudi’ had other plans. Days after his fatal injury, he was back in the nets, practicing his favorite shots with one eye. His determination and never-say-die attitude brought him back to Test cricket and he went on to become India’s youngest Test captain (a feat he holds till date).

It was under his captaincy that India won their first ever overseas Test match against New Zealand in 1967. Pataudi ended his career with six international centuries and is still widely regarded as the man responsible for instilling a winning attitude in Indian cricket.