Away average was 36.
Averaged 121 in matches won (3 in number), all in India.
Scored a century in both innings against Bradman's Australian team at Adelaide.
Averaged 48 in Australia and 41 in England.
Took 20 Test wickets with his medium pace leg cutters (average of 61). This included clean bowling Bradman twice in Australia.
Was the first Indian to score a century in three successive Test matches.
Captained India in 14 Tests (won 1, drew 8, lost 5). Averaged 40 with the bat as captain.
A classically gifted batsman with an eccentric grip and stance (hands well apart on bat, bat between pads in crease), the Second World War prevented the flowering of Vijay Hazare on an international stage. He was 31 when he made his Test debut, perhaps just past his prime. He'd had a remarkable first class career till then (which famously included successive scores of 248, 59, 309, 101, 223 and 87 - over 1,000 runs in just four matches, in the 1943-44 season) and his rivalry with Vijay Merchant still drew in massive crowds in Bombay cricket. Hazare scored just 207 runs in his first 11 Test innings, and it was only his first tour to Australia in 1947-48 when he got into top gear with a century in each innings. He averaged over 50 in his next four series but failed in the fifth - India's first tour to West Indies. It turned out to be his last. Sadly, he was not complemented in the Test team for the most part with talent anything near his (while he averaged 48 in his Test career, the entire Indian batting line-up averaged 28). This gulf wasn't just reflected in the poor results Indian Test teams as a unit had in those days, but also in the way a superior talent like Hazare approached batting. Even Don Bradman called Hazare a great player and paid tribute to his soundness and technique, adding however that Hazare's one failing was a lack of aggression and the reluctance to tear an attack to pieces despite having the ability. Probably, this was a result of the ingrained insecurity of playing in a batting side that averaged 28 overall. The politics and intrigue (with the "camp" culture) that went on in Indian teams in those days couldn't have been suitable for self-actualisation either. For similar reasons perhaps, captaincy wasn't a very happy experience for Hazare; it weighed him down and affected his batting. His first-class career lasted well into the 1960s though, amazingly till the age of 51 (18,740 runs at an average of 58; and 595 wickets at an average of 25) further accentuating that international cricket is about much more than just talent.
| Hazare's first notice about his talent on the international stage and it would remain his high point forever. Facing a massive Australian score of 674, Hazare walks out to bat with India 69-3. Marginally with Mankad and very substantially with Dattu Phadkar, Hazare takes the score to 321 before | departing for a well-made 116 (off 303 balls with 14 fours). Thanks to Phadkar's 123 India manage 381 but still have to follow on. And this time Hazare walks out at 0-2. He carries on from the first innings, comfortably handling bowlers like Lindwall and Miller, playing the cover drive and the | on drive with delightful prowess.Wickets keep falling at the other end, and only when it is 139-6, does he find support in Hemu Adhikari (51). They take the score to 271, till Hazare departs - 145 off 372 balls with 17 fours. India is all out for 277, losing by an innings and 16 runs. |
| In this, the opening Test, the two Vijays of the Indian team, captain Hazare and Manjrekar came together with the score 42-3. In the next four and a half hours, they added 220 runs against a bowling attack that included Fred Trueman, Alec Bedser and Jim Laker. They both got out at 264 (Hazare 89, Manjrekar 133) and the Indian team | was dismissed 29 runs later. England, with a batting line-up comprising Hutton, May, Compton and Graveney, got a lead of just 41 runs (Ghulam Ahmed 5-100). The Indians could have been permitted some optimism when they came out to bat. Alas, Trueman was at his ferocious best, and when Hazare walked out to bat, India was | 0-4 with Manjrekar bowled first ball. Soon it was 26-5, and in walked Phadkar and after 4 years the two had a substantial partnership yet again as they put on 105 on this grey English day. Hazare was out at 131, Phadkar at 143 and India at 165. England made the 128 runs they needed for the loss of 3 wickets. |
| West Indies was leading 1-0 before this last Test and made 286 in the first innings. Hazare walked out to bat at 37-2 and stabilised proceedings for a while. But both he (40) and Modi (33) were dismissed within 3 runs of each other, and India was all out for 193. | West Indies made 267 in their second innings, setting India 361 to win. This time Hazare walked out at 81-3 at the fall of the captain Lala Amarnath's wicket. And, like in the first innings, Modi and he dug their heels in. They added 139 runs till Modi fell (for 86). | Hazare was finally 6th out at 285 for 122 (285 minutes, 14 fours) and a rearguard innings from Phadkar (an unbeaten 37) almost snatched up a historic victory. Almost - India was 355-8 when the match ended, just six agonising runs short. |
| In this, the first Test, Pakistan are dismissed for 186 (Lala Amarnath 4-40, Mankad 3-52) and India get a good start. Hazare comes out at 103-2, Polly Umrigar joins him at 122, and the two | put on 183 runs in 165 minutes till Umrigar departs for 102. Hazare continues the consolidation and is unbeaten on 146 when India declares at 387-4. Pakistan are dismissed for 242 | (Mankad 5-72). The target left is not expected to make the Indians sweat too much. India knock off the 42 runs for no loss (Mankad 35*) and win by 10 wickets. |
| A new series, a fresh start, and Hazare sets it up for India with back-to-back centuries in the first two matches. In this, the first Test, England bat first and score 203 (Sadu Shinde 6-91; he would tragically die 4 years later at the age of 31). Hazare comes out at 64-2 to join the man he had a famous rivalry with in the last decade - Vijay Merchant. | They put on 211 runs and put the match out of reach of the English. Merchant is out for 154 but Hazare carries on and on, till the innings is closed at 418-6 declared. His 164* in over eight hours of batting, gives India a real chance to force the issue. England, however, with some committed and gutsy batting bat out | 221 overs and save the match with 368-6. Hazare would follow up this effort with 155 in the next Test. But Vijay Merchant would bizarrely retire after this match - ostensibly so that people could ask "why?" and not "why not?" (He did incur a shoulder injury from which he didn't fully recover - he was past 40, after all). |
