Dilip Doshi: A complete team man, friend and an inspiration

Dilip Doshi's demise came as a shock to me, as well as many fellow cricketers and fans. I have played a lot of cricket with Doshi bhai, and I have lost a dear friend.

A complete team man, no matter the number of matches or the kind of opponents he faced, Doshi gave more than 100 per cent every time. Doesn't matter what level he was playing, his dedication remained the same. Not once did he relax on the field.

He made his India debut at the age of 32. It is difficult for a player to make a debut well into his 30's as the quality of cricket was good world over. Unlike today, there were no fitness gurus at that time and it was incredible to make his debut past 30 and then to go and take more than 100 Test wickets (114).

Back then, with Bish (Bishan Singh Bedi), Pras (EAS Prasanna), Chandra (BS Chandrasekhar) and Venkat (S Venkataraman) around, no other spinner could dream of playing for India. We all knew Padmakar Shivalkar and Rajinder Goel were good enough to play for India but never got the chance because of the spin quartet. Luckily for Doshi bhai, he got a chance when Bish retired.

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