I and Rajinder Goel share the same philosophy: jo mil gaya usi ko muqaddar samajh liya. I’m a huge fan of Dev saab (Anand) and (Mohammed) Rafi saab. I don’t know if Rajinder liked Dev saab too, but the Hum Dono line (Mein zindagi ka saath nibhata chala gaya) connected us.
We were contemporary left-arm spinners and we both missed the bus in terms of playing for India. We should have played for India, but we were not chosen. Those who were in charge of Indian cricket could tell you why we were not chosen. Between us, we had over 1,300 (1,339) first-class wickets, but weren’t considered good enough. Later, BCCI awarded us the Lifetime Achievement Award and recognized our contribution to Indian cricket and that was a memorable moment.
We played as opponents in the Ranji Trophy and the Duleep Trophy. We had a healthy rivalry. But we also had great mutual respect. In fact, I thought of him as an envoy from God, such was my respect for him. As a bowler he was unique. It had an x factor that no one had and its performance attests. I can’t explain it to you (special touch in his bowling alley). Those who watched or played with or against him knew what a special look he wore. He was also a fantastic human being.
Rajinder flattened out, but his flight varied. His style was different. Spinners used flight and looping to make fun of hitters those days. He scoffed at hitters okay, but in a different way. Due to his flatter trajectory, he didn’t give the batter time to lower the gate and drive. It was very precise and immobilized them on the back foot. The best hitters, masters against spinning, struggled to play it. In recent decades we have seen the proliferation of flatter trajectory spinners, thanks to limited-limit cricket. But Rajinder was different. It was not a spinner. He varied his rhythm very well. What he had was special, probably nobody could match that. I think he was a better bowler than me. In fact, he was a strong contender to play in India.
READ | Rajinder Goel, the best of almost men.
Despite being a flatter trajectory spinner, he was never a bad wicket spinner. He was an all-weather bowler because he read hitters well and was adept at changing his tactics according to conditions.
Indian cricket had some great spinners during our time. As far as the left arm twist is concerned, Bishan Bedi was an automatic choice for the Indian team. Bishan was a great bowler, but I don’t know what prevented authorities from playing two left-arm spinners in XI. (Erapalli) Prasanna and (Srinivas) Venkataraghavan played together. So if two spinners could play, why not two left-arm spinners? But I don’t want to go back to what had happened in the past. Let it be done and dust off.
The news of Rajinder’s passing is a big surprise to me. He was a cricket champion.
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She is a freelance blogger, writer, and speaker, and writes for various entertainment magazines.