Indian spin legend Dilip Doshi has passed away at 77, with ex-cricketers lauding a man they called a “true gentleman at heart”.
Dilip died in London on Monday, according to Indian media.
The left-arm spinner debuted in Tests in 1979 in his thirties, ending with 114 wickets across 33 matches.
The spin legend also featured in 15 one-day internationals for India from 1980 to 1982.
Cricket icon Sachin Tendulkar described Doshi as a “kind-hearted soul”, saying he’d miss their “cricketing chats”.
Former all-rounder Ravi Shastri called Doshi “a gentleman through and through and an exceptional bowler”.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) also honored the late spinner.
A bespectacled Doshi upheld India’s spin tradition set by the renowned quartet of Bishan Singh Bedi, Erapalli Prasanna, Srinivas Venkataraghavan, and Bhagwath Chandrasekhar.
His most fond memory of playing against arch-rivals Pakistan came in the 1983 Bengaluru Test, where he had an interesting chat with legendary Javed Miandad.
In a comic banter, Pakistan legend asked Doshi about his hotel room number, where he wanted to hit a six.
“That day what he was trying to do in Bangalore on my recall Test was trying to tell me ‘What’s your room number? I wanna hit the ball there” Dilip recalled banter with Javed Miandad in an interview.
The Gujarat-born spinner quietly exited from international cricket in the 1980s due to disagreement with the management of Indian cricket during that period.
Doshi baffled global batsmen and played English County cricket, notably with Nottinghamshire.
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