India, Sept. 12 -- There are domestic records that suggest a player was unlucky not to have enjoyed a longer international career. Then there are numbers so extreme that the international record beside them becomes almost difficult to understand, and more than 10,000 first-class runs, 38 centuries and a career average of 67.46 certainly belong in that category. In the Ranji Trophy, the numbers became even more extraordinary. He scored 7,319 runs at an average of 80.42, struck 31 hundreds and repeatedly delivered when the stakes were highest, including centuries in four of the six Ranji Trophy finals he played.

Yet his Test career consisted of precisely one match. He scored 30 and 23 against a West Indies attack containing Courtney Walsh ...