Birthday Special: Vinod Kambli – Left-handed elegance and style personified

The year was 1993. The Indian side was taking on England in Mumbai. The visitors batted first and posted a total of 347 on the board. In reply, the Indian openers provided a solid start, putting on 109 runs for the first wicket. At the fall of the first wicket, a 21-year-old batsman came to the middle.

Over the course of the 411 deliveries that he faced, Vinod Kambli embellished the Wankhede stadium with shots of stunning beauty and flair. The left-hander scored a splendid 224, as India finished their first innings with a total of 591 runs on the board. And of course, he was involved in a match-winning partnership of 194 runs with his childhood buddy and batting legend Sachin Tendulkar. The two batting prodigies completely enjoyed their time out in the middle, as they toyed with the England bowling attack.

The famous partnership

In fact, the relationship between Kambli and Tendulkar dates back to their school days, and the 664-run partnership that the duo put on in the year 1988 is talked about even today. In the match against St.Xavier’s in the famous Harris Shield tournament, the left-right duo literally made the opposition bowlers cry. While Kambli scored a relentless 349*, Tendulkar helped himself to an undefeated 326.

There are also several moments from Kambli’s willow in the international arena that will be etched in memory. In fact, the year 1993 is one where Kambli proved to be unstoppable. The Indian batsman scored a rollicking 227 off 301 balls against Zimbabwe in March 1993, a month after his double century against England in Mumbai. In the months of July and August the same year, the left-hander crafted two hundreds in two consecutive Test matches against Sri Lanka, and was the monarch of the cricketing world in the year 1993. In fact, in that year, he averaged 113.29 with the bat.

However, his career was short-lived, and Kambli played his last Test for India in the year 1995. The Mumbaikar played 17 Tests for India and scored 1084 runs at an average of 54.20. In the ODI arena, Kambli featured in 104 matches and scored 2477 runs at a decent average of 32.59. His first-class cricket record gives a glimpse of his talent, an average of 59.67 with 9965 runs in 129 matches.

But more than the numbers, Kambli will be remembered as a player with enormous talent, the partner-in-crime and a close friend of India’s cricketing God, Sachin Tendulkar. His left-handed flamboyance could have dazzled the Indian cricket but it was not to be.