Narendra Hirwani

Born as Narendra Deepchand Hirwani, he was a former leg-spinner for India. Hirwani came from a mediocre family in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh. He trained under Sanjay Jagdale in Indore, and made his first-class cricket debut for Madhya Pradesh.

Hirwani got five dismissals in his debut first class cricket match and his performance only got better with each match played. Hirwani got selected in the test squad for India in 1987-88 owing to his noteworthy performance in the U-25 team against West Indies.

His test cricket debut was a remarkable start to his career. Hirwani was successful in dismissing 8 batsmen against competing team, West Indies. The match was held in 1988 at Chennai, India. Only 3 more players have had such an out-standing debut in their career. Hiwrani went ahead to take a total of 16 wickets in the entire test match partaking 136 runs.

In the same season (1988-89), Hirwani took 10 wickets in 3 matches held in a Tri-Series held in Sharjah. This feat earned him the Man of the Match title. The winner’s streak ended abruptly in 1989-90, where Hirwani failed to live up to his expectations. After a few dissatisfying matches, he never played ODI internationals after 1996.

Though not in International front, Hirwani continued his noteworthy conquest in first class cricket. He took a total of 732 wickets at the average of 27.05 during his 23 years of career span. He has 54 instances of taking 5 wickets in an innings for first-class cricket.

After his retirement, Hirwani was inducted in the National Selection Panel for cricketers in 2008.

Career Highlights

Took 8 dismissals in his test debut in 1988.