Arshad Ayub

Arshad Ayub's Test career lasted just over two years. But in that short eventful time, he experienced the kind of ups and downs that cricketers experience over a much longer period. A right arm off spinner who relied more on accuracy than turn and a useful late order batsman, Ayub played against West Indies, New Zealand and Pakistan. In his debut series against West Indies, he held out promise of bigger things. In the first Test, he took four of the five wickets that West Indies lost in the second innings and it took a special innings from Vivian Richards to halt a rampaging Ayub in his tracks. Then in the third Test he scored a fine 57 at No 9. The next season he played a leading part in India winning the series against New Zealand with a bag of 21 wickets in the three Tests. A few months later he showed that it was not only on Indian pitches that he could succeed by taking 14 wickets against a strong West Indian side in the Caribbean in four Tests. This included two five wicket hauls. However in his next series in Pakistan, he was a total failure. After two Tests he was not only wicketless but was also very expensive and was not considered thereafter.

A utility player like Ayub pulled in his weight in the limited overs game and he had one notable spell when he bowled India to victory against Pakistan in the Asia Cup final at Dhaka in 1988 with a spell of five for 21, then the best bowling figures by an Indian in a ODI. All things considered, he was perhaps discarded too soon but this meant that he could give his all for Hyderabad, for whom he rendered yeoman service for several years. Besides being a shrewd skipper, he also had excellent all round career figures of 2224 runs and 268 wickets.(Partab Ramchand)