The First Test on Home Soil

India was inducted as a Test playing nation in 1932 and played a solitary Test on its debut in England. The Englishmen toured India for the first ever series between the two teams in 1933 – 34. The team led by Douglas Jardine was fairly strong but wasn’t the full strength England team.

Indian Cricket those days was a pretty divisive one – states (Holkar, Nawanagar, Limbdi, Patiala) ruled by Raja’s and Nawab’s being the employers of many of the top cricketers and with religion based cricket (Hindus, Parsis, Muslims) playing a part, to have a “team” wasn’t an easy achievement. This had been evident in 1932 when India’s team to England went under the leadership of Maharaja of Porbander as captain and the Limbdi ruler being the deputy; even the 1936 tour to follow changed nothing as Maharaja of Vizianagram led the team. None of the three could command a regular place in a club team on performance, yet were captains because of position and power.

To select the Indian team for the 1st Test at Bombay a series of trial matches were held in late November – the first two at the Esplanade Maidan and then at the Bombay Gymkhana, the venue of the 1st ever Test on Indian soil. One of the teams for the trial match was led by CK Nayudu and the other by Wazir Ali.

The team announced by the selectors had CK Nayudu as the captain with Wazir Ali, JG Navle, LP Jai, Vijay Merchant, R Jamshedji, SMH Colah, Mohd. Nissar, Amar Singh, L Ramjit and L Amarnath. Lall Singh, who had played for India in the 1932 Test and had impressed one and all with his fielding prowess, was not allowed to play by MCC as he was a Malaysian who hadn’t completed his residential qualification in India as per ICC Rules and Regulations.

The 1st Test on Indian soil began on December 15, 1933 at the Bombay Gymkhana (Bombay is one of those cities where Test Cricket has been played on 3 grounds – Bombay Gymkhana, Brabourne Stadium and Wankhade Stadium). India won the toss and Nayudu preferred to bat first. Wazir Ali and the wicket keeper batsman J G Navle opened for India against the left – right combination of Clark and Nichols. After a steady start against the quicks, India put on 44 before Navle fell to the spin of the great Hedley Verity. On debut Amaranth went in but lost Wazir Ali (36) and then skipper Nayudu (28). He too fell soon after compiling 38.