Mohinder Amarnath Biography

Mohinder Amarnath or Jimmy as he was popularly known was born on September 24, 1950 in Patiala, Punjab. His father was Lala Amarnath, the first captain of India in the post-independence era. Mohinder had a long stint at the highest levels in international cricket after having made his debut against Australia at Chennai in December 1969.

After playing his debut series, he had to endure a long wait before he got back into the Indian team in 1975.

In his long and illustrious career, Mohinder Amarnath played 69 Tests scoring 4,378 runs with a batting average of 42.50. He has 11 hundreds, 24 fifties and 32 wickets against his name in test cricket. He played 85 One-day internationals, scoring 1,924 runs with a respectable average of 30.53 and a highest score of 102 not out.

He was recalled into the team in 1975 for the series against New Zealand and West Indies. Though he did not fare very well against England at home, he performed very well on the Australian tour of 1977-78. He was out of action for three years from international cricket after being hit on the head by a bouncer. He came back into the team for the 1982-83 tour to Pakistan.

Amarnath made headlines with his stellar performance in the 1983 Cricket World Cup, having led India to their first ever World Cup triumph. He was awarded the “Man of the Series” trophy. In the World Cup final match between India and the West Indies, Amarnath contributed a valuable 26 runs in the Indian total of 183. Besides, he also took 3 West Indian wickets and India were successful in beating the much-vaunted West Indian side. Amarnath was declared the Man of the Match. Amarnath was nominated as the Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1984. He hit his last century against Sri Lanka in 1987, but was left out of the Indian squad for the 1987 World Cup.