Lala Amarnath Leads Independent India to Australia — 1947-48

Amarnath had scored India's first Test hundred (118 v England, Bombay 1933) and had a turbulent 1936 tour of England under the Maharaj of Vizianagram, from which he was sent home. By 1947 he was 36, married into a Punjabi family that had lost relatives at Partition, and Indian cricket's senior professional.

The newly-formed Pakistan declined to send players (Kardar excepted, who declared for India before later moving to Pakistan). The squad sailed from Bombay in early October 1947 with a makeshift opening attack and no specialist new-ball bowler.

India's first independent tour was a logistical and emotional ordeal. The squad assembled in Bombay at the end of August 1947; Partition violence had displaced or killed several relatives of Amarnath, Vinoo Mankad and Abdul Hafeez Kardar. Vijay Merchant withdrew citing health; Mushtaq Ali also pulled out. Amarnath, with one Test as captain (a victory over Australia at Sydney would have been his first), was confirmed by the Maharajkumar of Vizianagram.

The tour proper began at Perth in late October. Australia, with Bradman returning, were too strong: India lost the first Test by an innings and 226, the third by 233 runs, the fourth by an innings and 16, and the fifth by an innings and 177. The drawn second Test was rain-saved.

Amarnath himself struggled in the Tests (140 runs at 14, 13 wickets) but his tour averages were respectable: 1,162 first-class runs at 38.73 and 36 wickets. His most-cited moment was passing the ball to Gogumal Kishenchand for the over in which Bradman reached his 100th first-class hundred at Sydney — a courtesy Bradman acknowledged for years afterwards.

Amarnath returned to India to find his captaincy contested. He played one further Test series, against the West Indies in 1948-49, before the Vizianagram-led board moved to other captains. He coached India to its first Test win over England in 1952.