When Ranjitsinhji first emerged in English cricket in the mid-1890s, nobody had ever seen anything quite like his stylish strokeplay. His record-breaking season in 1896 earned him a Wisden Cricketer of the Year award.
Curiously, the Almanack profile did not mention that Ranji had made his Test debut in 1896, scoring 235 runs at 78 against Australia. He played in 15 Tests in all, scoring 989 runs at 44.95.
Kumar Shri Ranjitsinhji, the young Indian batsman who has in the course of four seasons risen to the highest point of success and popular favour, was born on the 10th of September, 1872. When he first began to be talked about, the statement gained currency that he knew nothing whatever of cricket before coming to England to complete his education, but on this point Ranjitsinhji has himself put the world right.
It is true that when he went up to Cambridge he had nearly everything of the real science to learn, but he had played the game in his schooldays in India, and was by no means such an entire novice as has sometimes been represented. It was in 1892 that the English public first heard his name, and there is little doubt that he ought that year to have been included in the Cambridge eleven.
Naturally then he was not then the great batsman he has since become, but he made lots of runs in college matches, and was already a brilliant field. The authorities at Cambridge perhaps found it hard to believe that an Indian could be a first-rate cricketer, and at the complimentary dinner given to Ranjitsinhji at Cambridge on September 29th – when his health was proposed by the Master of Trinity – Mr FS Jackson frankly acknowledged he had never made so great a mistake in his life as when he underestimated the young batsman’s powers.
As a batsman Ranjitsinhji is himself alone, being quite individual and distinctive in his style of play. He can scarcely be pointed to as a safe model for young and aspiring batsmen, his peculiar and almost unique skill depending in large measure on extreme keenness of eye, combined with great power and flexibility of wrist.
For any ordinary player to attempt to turn good length balls off the middle stump as he does, would be futile and disastrous. To Ranjitsinhji on a fast wicket, however, everything seems possible, and if the somewhat too-freely-used word genius can with any propriety be employed in connection with cricket, it surely applies to the young Indian’s batting.
