Away bowling average was 29 (a rare Indian player to have a better overseas average than at home).
In winning matches, averaged 18 (in just 3 Tests, all in India).
Against West Indies, Australia and England, the strongest teams of his era, he averaged 35, 33 and 38.
In West Indies and Pakistan, averaged 29 and 23. Never played in Australia.
His frequency of taking 5-wicket hauls till date remains higher than any Indian bowler ever - one in every 3 matches.
His 9-102 is the third best bowling figures by an Indian till date.
His 34-669 series figures vs New Zealand in 1955-56 is the second best by an Indian ever.
Subhash Gupte is one of the earliest and most under-rated practitioners of the most elusive and mysterious Indian entity outside of Indian politics - leg spin. Unlike the two others of his ilk in India who are considered superior to him - Chandrasekhar and Kumble, Gupte belonged to a purer, more classical school of the art - with loop, big turn, flight and variation. How good he was is reflected by the fact that one of the best players of spin ever, Rohan Kanhai, claimed that mastering Gupte was his real prize. His figures abroad are stunning - his average away is actually lower than his average at home, and it is miles ahead of the man most people (including us) crown as India's best individual spin bowler - Anil Kumble, which tosses up tremendous food for thought. Had he played more than 36 tests, would he have been amongst the world's all time top three leg spinners ever? This line of thinking has support from Gary Sobers, who has gone on record with his view that Gupte was a better leg-spinner than Warne. There is also a line of thought that his records have suffered on account of poor fielding and plenty of catches having gone down off his bowling. Nor did he have bowling support at the other end, which can make such a huge difference (as it did with Bedi-Chandra-Prasanna, for example). There are reasons why he is not higher in this list - in terms of volume of figures he is not commanding, his achievements are restricted to specific countries, he hasn't won too many matches for India, and so on. But all said, you can't help but think that he is where he is more on account of the names who have to be placed above him, rather than because of his own failings.
| For New Zealand, this was the sort of series that parents warned their children about when they told them they wanted to take up cricket for a living. The final result was not embarrassing, a 2-0 defeat in a five match series, but the sheer quantum of runs scored, wickets taken and records broken against | them would have broken the strongest of morales. Even as Mankad stole most of the thunder with runs and wickets, Gupte provided the critical bowling performances, ripping the Kiwis apart time and again. He took four five wicket hauls and one four wicket haul in a single series. While he did keep the | Kiwis down in the matches that were drawn, his contributions in the matches India won were significant - 8 wickets for 128 runs in Bombay, and 9 wickets for 145 runs in Madras. He finally finished with an average of 20 in the series. |
| Subhash Gupte had an interesting little contest going with the West Indies. They were one of the strongest sides in the game then, and they had scored against him, but not without acknowledging that he was a fantastic leg-spinner. Gupte came in to this match following a hammering by Australia's Neil Harvey, which had led | to several questions being raised against him. The words 'flash in the pan' was being tossed around. In a flash, Gupte shut all those claims up. On a placid, unresponsive wicket, on just the strengths of his flight and guile, Gupte ran through a West Indian line up boasting of the likes of Gary Sobers and Rohan Kanhai. He gob smacked the | West Indies with 9 wickets, and single-handedly bowled them out for 222. That India still went on to lose the match by 203 runs seems to stand as an example of what many have said - with more support, perhaps Gupte could have become a far greater figure in Test cricket than he is today. |
| Gupte went into this series as a young unknown who had been spoken about as being a prospect with promise. In his first away series he 'made his bones', in a manner of speaking, establishing himself as a spinner of a quality and a major threat in international cricket. Against a strong West Indian batting line-up (which included the legendary "Three Ws" - Weekes, Walcott and | Worrell), on excellent batting tracks, Gupte delivered consistently and played a huge part in the margin of defeat kept down at 0-1. He started off with 7 wickets in the very first innings in Port of Spain. Unfortunately, he was a touch low key in the second test, picking up 5 wickets in two innings, which led to the West Indies going on to win the match (which turned out to be the series | decider). He then raised his game by several notches again, picking up 15 wickets in the next four innings, but the West Indies were too strong as a team to be broken by these individual heroics, and they held on draws. However, with 27 wickets away at an average of 29, Subhash Gupte had made a sparkling start. |
| The history of India-Pakistan Test cricket has been ravaged with a number of anti-climatic draws played out with no team taking the offensive, for fear of losing and the heavy repercussions to follow. This was the first of such matches, and set the pattern, with Gupte providing the only moment of magic that actually brought the Test alive. Batting first, Pakistan made 257 at a gut-wrenching run-rate of 1.8 runs | per over. India collapsed to 148, which gave the Pakistanis a sniff of a chance, if they were not too drowsy to take it. Pakistan ambled on to 116 when Gupte produced a spell that woke everyone up and suddenly made the game interesting. In 6 stunning overs he engineered a collapse that saw Pakistan go from 116 for 1 to 158 all out, Gupte himself scalping 5. With 268 to win it suddenly looked like there could be a | result, when India lost 2 wickets for 17 runs and in the manner of the sensitive 'touch-me-not' flower, sprang back inside its shell to play out a draw, ending at 147 for 2. A little context is important, though. To give them the benefit of doubt, it was a four-day Test match, and those were not the days of 4-per over run rates, so one can perhaps understand the result a little better. |
| On a dead, flat pitch at the Green Park Oval, Gupte produced a brilliant, magical spell that allowed India to enforce a follow on over England for the first time in the history of the game. The series was level at 0-0, but a Gupte-less Indian attack had been given a bit of a pounding the first test. To try and change things around, Gupte was brought in. India batted first and not unexpectedly, put up 467. A | significant score, but one that wasexpected to help India draw the match, and not save it, a theory that was being borne out by the English batsmen as they moved smoothly on to 87 for 1. But within a span of 13 runs, Gupte went against the run of play and completely turned things around. His loop and turn seemed to take the non-cooperative pitch in their stride, and went on to reduce the English to | 100 for 5. Borde then went on to take three wickets himself, and England finally finished at 244. India stood well on top, having subjected the English to a follow-on. It is difficult to decide whether the fact that England went on to score 497 for 5 in the second innings and draw the game takes away from Gupte's first innings efforts, or adds to its value by reflecting the nature of the wicket it came in. |
