India’s most unlucky cricketer, opened bowling and batting in the debut test, hit a match-winning four, then could not wear the jersey again.

New Delhi. In the world of sports, great players are judged by how many years a player was able to maintain his dominance, while there are some players to whom fate gives only one chance and in that one chance they leave such a mark that they are remembered for centuries. One such steely-willed player from the soil of Maharashtra was Iqbal Siddiqui, whose story even today brings out the fate connection of cricket.

That era of 2001 when Indian cricket was taking a new turn under the captaincy of Sourav Ganguly and a face came against England on the field of Mohali who had shocked the British with his fearlessness. Iqbal Siddiqui was not just a bowler or a batsman but he looked like a soldier on the field who had a magical combination of pace and swing. When he was given the cap of Team India in that historic Mohali Test, no one had thought that this player would accomplish a feat in his first and only match which would be recorded in golden letters in the books of cricket.

Record of opening bowling-opening batting in the first test

In the first innings of the match, when England’s legendary batsman Graham Thorpe was frozen at the crease, Iqbal had shown him the way to the pavilion with his sharp bowling and proved that he had the potential to create a stir at the international level, but the real drama was yet to come because nature had written something else special for him. At the last stage of the game, when India needed only 5 runs to win, captain Sourav Ganguly took a gamble which surprised everyone. Dada sent Iqbal Siddiqui to open and without any pressure, this player hit the historic winning four off the ball of Matthew Hoggard which took India across the threshold of victory. Iqbal Siddiqui became one of those rare cricketers in the world who opened the bowling in his only Test match and also opened the batting in the second innings. This record is a living proof of his versatility which shows that he was not one to shy away from any challenge.

luck did not support

Although fate did not give him a chance to wear the blue jersey again, his fear in domestic cricket remained on the seventh sky. While playing for Maharashtra, he took more than 300 wickets in first-class cricket and after coming down the order, he gave sleepless nights to the opposition captains with his aggressive batting. His bowling brings back those old memories when the red ball used to talk in the air and the batsmen could only guess. In today’s T20 era, where records are being made and broken, a ‘One Test Wonder’ like Iqbal Siddiqui teaches us that the game is not just dependent on statistics but it is a story of passion and passion. However, some experts say that justice was not done to Iqbal Siddiqui.