Dilip Doshi turns 75 today. He is one Indian cricketer who we ought to appreciate more. For, he was true to his craft, put a lot of thought into his cricket and, above all, was successful to the point that the greatest cricketer ever born “wondered like so many others, why Dilip did not play more for his country because he was one of the finest bowlers in the world in his prime.” Yes, that’s what Sir Garfield Sobers wrote in Doshi’s 1991 autobiography Spin Punch.

When Doshi made his debut for India at 31, after years of domestic cricket toil, he had big boots to fill. It was the September of 1979, and he had to step in for Bishan Singh Bedi, who was part of the 1979 Oval Test which India nearly won, but was not in the next one India played — against the Australians at Chennai a few days later.