3 Indian players who could have been “hot shot"

Indian cricket team has always produced

some real legends in every era. From Vinoo Mankand to Bishen Singh Bedi and from Sunil Gavaskar to Sachin Tendulkar, we have a list of legendary cricketers. But there have been players who have contributed tremendously but are less known than the cricketers of today’s time. Here are three former Indian players who would have been really popular if they would have played in this era of the game.

Subhash Gupte
Subhash Gupte is always reckoned to as one of the finest spinners that India has ever produced. He had the ability to flight and spin the ball very efficiently. The variety that his bowling consisted of was the two distinguished googlies that he used to bowl. The West Indies team that toured India in the year 1951-52 said that Gupte could turn the ball even on a glass. He made his international debut in the year 1951-52 and took over the reign of bowling from Vinoo Mankad. He picked up 149 wickets in 36 Test matches that he played. At Kanpur in 1958/9, he took nine West Indian wickets in an innings for 102 runs, and hadLance Gibbs - the only batsman he missed - dropped by wicket keeper Naren Tamhane. He once took all ten wickets in an innings for Bombay against Bahawalpur CC, and once in Lancashire league for Rishton.

Farokh Engineer 
Engineer was always the first and initial choice for keeping wickets in the Indian team ever since he made his debut in the national side. He got the Indian Test cap in the year 1961 and continued his career till 1975. He was Indian Cricket Cricketer of the Year in 1965, and he was awarded the Padma Shri in 1973. He was considered as one of the best wicket-keepers in the business as he used to keep wickets for the spin quartet of Bedi, Prasanna, Chandrasekhar and Venkataraghavan. They were four maestros and pillars of Indian bowling in that era.

Polly Umrigar
Umrigar’s Test span lasted from 1948 to 1962. He became the first ever Indian to score a double hundred in a Test match. He scored 3631 runs in 59 Test matches and held the record of most number of Test tons until 1978.