The late great CK Nayudu will always be known in the annals of Indian cricket history as the first ever captain for India in the history of Test Cricket. This is something that was a huge achievement at that time and it is something that nobody can take away from him. CK Nayudu did not play that many test Matches but he had the most legendary first class career which made him the legend that he still is even after all these decades. He played first class cricket for a mind blowing 47 years from 1916 till the year 1963.
Let’s talk about the first captain for India in the history of Test Cricket which is CK Nayudu
CK Nayudu was the first ever test captain of India
India started playing Test Cricket in the year 1932 and at that time not a lot of cricket was played like it is played today. Therefore the longevity of the players was far more than the players of today. CK Nayudu started playing first class cricket in 1916 when he was 21 years old. For the next 16 years, he only played first class cricket till the time in 1932, India had a test team and he was chosen as the captain of that team. He only played the 7 Test Matches but even after that he continued playing first class cricket for 30 more years till the year 1963 and he was 68 years at the time he retired from first class cricket. The players of today are not able to play for half that age so it tells everyone that time has changed everything.
CK Nayudu played 207 First Class Matches in 47 years. In those Matches he scored 11,825 Runs . He has played for many teams throughout his career such as Hindus, Madras, Hyderabad, Central Provinces – Berar, Central India, Holkar, Andhra. He had a good average of 35.94 throughout his career and he hit 26 centuries and 58 half centuries with a highest score of 200. Not only was he a great batter but he was also an all rounder as he did a lot of damage with the ball with his right arm slow mediums. He took 411 Wickets at an average of 29.28. He picked 12 Five Wicket Hauls in a Test innings and 2 times he had taken 10 Wickets in a Test Match. He was also a very good catcher as he took 170 Catches as well.
And in the 7 Test Matches he played for India, he made 350 runs in which he made 2 half centuries for India. He also took 9 wickets for India in the 7 Matches. He should have played more test matches for India. In 1932, he was made the captain for the Indian tour to England and that was the first test tour for India and then England visited India in 1933-34 for the first tour to India. He shortly retired from Test Cricket. He was awarded the Padma Bhushan by India in 1956 and he was the first cricketer to be awarded this high honour. The BCCI in 1994 instituted the CK Nayudu Lifetime Achievement Award which is the highest award for any former cricketer in the BCCI. CK Nayudu was the first popular face in the history of Indian cricket.
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