Former India captain Iftikhar Ali Khan Pataudi, who began the lineage of the Pataudi family in cricket, would have turned a year older today.
Pataudi’s son Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi followed in his father’s footsteps, but his children – particularly Saif Ali Khan – has gone on to become a film star like his mother Sharmila Tagore.
Before Saif and Kareena Kapoor’s son Taimur thinks about picking up a cricket bat or put on his acting shoes, here are five fun facts about his great grandfather on his birthday.
1. Played For England and India
The Nawab of Pataudi senior, who made his Test debut with the England team in 1932, is the only Indian to play for India and England in any form of cricket.
The right-hand batsman played three matches for England and three matches for India. In his six-match Test career, Pataudi scored 199 runs at an average of 19.90.
Interestingly, he batted in 10 innings and never got out for a duck.
However, he played 127 first-class matches and notched 8,750 runs at an average of 48.61.
2. Century on Debut
In the famous Bodyline series in 1932/33 in Australia, the Nawab of Pataudi senior made his debut in the first Test of the Ashes series at Sydney.
Batting at number four, the Punjab lad structured a fine innings of 102 runs off 380 balls. He smashed six boundaries during his knock.
Unfortunately, in the rest of the innings of his career, Pataudi’s highest score was 22.
Pataudi played only two matches in the Bodyline series because he was dropped after the second Test since he disagreed with the then England captain Douglas Jardine’s tactics of bowling on the body of the Australian batsmen.
During the second Test, when Pataudi refused to stand in a fielding position instructed by Jardine, the skipper said:
Ah, I see His Highness is a conscientious objector.
3. Third Test Captain of India
Iftikhar Ali Khan Pataudi was appointed the third Test captain for India before the tour of England in 1946. He played only one series (three matches) for India, and scored 55 runs in three innings.
India lost the first Test at Lord’s and managed to draw the next two matches at Manchester and the Oval.
The first two captains for India were CK Nayudu and Maharajah of Vizianagram.
4. Flourishing Time at Oxford University
While studying in Balliol College, Oxford, Pataudi won blues at the university in cricket and hockey. During a match against Cambridge in 1931, A Ratcliffe (part of the Cambridge team) smashed 201 runs in one innings and set a university record. Soon after the innings, Pataudi said that he will break the record.
In the very next innings, the Punjab lad struck 238* runs, and the record for the highest score in a university match stayed until 2005.
5. Related to Mirza Ghalib
Iftikhar Ali Khan Pataudi was related to the great Urdu poet Mirza Ghalib. The cricketer married Shahar Bano Begum, who was the daughter of a Nawab of Loharu.
And the Urdu poet was married to Umrao Begum, who was the daughter of another Nawab of Loharu – Ilahi Bakhsh Khan.
Thus, Pataudi senior and Mirza Ghalib were related.
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