India's first cricket test team - Bahadur Kapadia

Bahadur Kapadia

Bahadur Edulji Kapadia was the reserve wicket keeper for the 1932 inaugral test match. His opportunities were limited as the main wicket keeper Janardan Navle had an impresive tour.
Bahadur Kapadia was a Parsee and played for the Parsees team from 1920/21 to 1935/36. He played a total of 30 first class matches but unfortunately couldnt add a test cap.

His matches during the tour were:

He didnt play in the first two matches for which Janardan Navle was the wicket keeper, he played his first match of the tour vs Oxford University at the University Parks ground, where i had a chance to see Kevin Pietersen hit 170 lot many years later!

Oxford University v Indians

Batted at number 7 in the first innings was out for 7. Did not bat in the second innings
Took one catch in each innings in this Indian win over Oxford university

After missing the match again MCC he was back in the team against Hampshire

Hampshire v Indians

Batted at number 10 , scored 5 and 3 notout. Took one catch. India lost by innings and 103 runs in this match

Missed next two matches and was back in the team for vs Cambridge University

Cambridge University v Indians

Batted at number 10 and scored 37 runs. Did not bat in the second innings
Also took a stumping off the bowling of CK Nayudu. India won this match comfortably by 9 wickets

Missed the next 6 matches including the inaugral test match and was back for the match against Middlesex

Middlesex v Indians

In a match dominated by India, he didnt get chance to bat in either innings and contributed with one catch .The match ended in draw

Missed the next three matches and was back for the match against Gloucestershire

Gloucestershire v Indians

Batted at number 11 and 9 and scored 2 and 0. Took one catch as well. India wont this batch by 55 runs mainly due to Amar Singh's herioics.


Somerset v Indians



Played his first consecutive first class match. Batted at number 10 and got out for 5. Took one catch in this Indian win

Missed next two matches and was back against Leicestershire





Leicestershire v Indians

Didnt get a chance to bat in this match which India won by innings and 15 runs. Took one catch.

This was his last match of the tour and did not feature in the team for the last 3 matches.



He got sporadic chances in 7 matches out of the 26 matches played in the 1932 tour. Ended up scoring 77 runs from 7 innings with one not out and ended with a tour average of 12.83. Took 7 catches and a stumping. His firstclass average from 44 innings ( 6 notouts) was 13.73, but has 47 catches and 24 stumpings. So, possibly his batting is in line with his first class career. Probably he was a good wicket keeper with limited batting skills. His catches/stumpings are much less as compared to his firstclass career. I would have expected that he would have got more catches in England due to the swinging conditions.

Ramachandra Guha's book "A Corner of a Foreign Field: The Indian History of a British Sport" mentions a controversial notout catch off the batting of Bahadur Kapadia. This was in the 1929 Quadrangular trophy ( Religion based teams - Hindus, Muslims, Parsees and Europeans) semi final versus Europeans. Ramachandra Guha mentions Bahadur Kapadia as a key player and from the controversy, we can assume that he wasnt a mug with the bat as the stats suggest

References:

Cricinfo
Wiki
First Test Match Details
All the tour matches