B.S. Chandrashekhar Biography

B.S. Chandrashekhar is a former Indian cricketer who is famous for his immense contribution to Indian cricket with his effective spin bowling prowess. His full name is Bhagwat Subramanya Chandrasekhar and he was born on May 17, 1945 in Mysore, Karnataka. Chandrasekhar was obsessed with the sport of cricket since his childhood and despite having a withered right-arm owing to polio, he worked hard to strengthen his interests putting aside his handicap, to eventually become a hall-of-famer in Indian cricketing chronicles.

The major teams that B.S. Chandrashekhar represented are India, Mysore and Karnataka.

B.S. Chandrashekhar was an unorthodox spin bowler whom batsman regarded as highly unpredictable. He had an unusually long run-up with medium paced deliveries that also included googlies, topspinners and leg-breaks as part of his bowling arsenal. Amongst the most successful and feared leg-spinners in Indian cricketing history, Chandrashekhar along with E.A.S. Prasanna, Bishen Singh Bedi and Srinivasaraghavan Venkataraghavan constituted the renowned Indian spin quartet, that dominated spin bowling in the 1960’s and 1970’s.

Chandrashekhar made his international Test debut for India against England at Mumbai in 1964. Since then he has played in 58 Tests and taking 242 wickets, with his career best being 8/79. Amongst his memorable innings, his performances against England at The Oval in August 1971 was noteworthy as he went on to take 6/38, thus contributing to India’s first series victory in England; as well as, his 12/104 against Australia at Melbourne in 1978, making it India’s first win in Australia.

Bhagwat Chandrasekhar has played only one ODI against New Zealand at Auckland in February 1976 in which he took 3 wickets.

While he was exceptionally great with his spin bowling, Chandrasekhar was equally infamous for his poor batting, being accredited with having the highest percentage of ducks in Test history, with 23 ducks. He was even awarded a customized Gray-Nicholls bat with a hole in it to commemorate the four ducks he scored during the 1977-78 Australian tour.

For his dedication and immense contribution to cricket, B.S. Chandrashekhar was named as Wisden Cricketer of the Year 1972.