Known fondly as ‘Vinoo’ through his cricketing days, Mulvantrai Mankad was among India’s greatest all-rounders.

Born in 1917, Mankad went on to play 44 Tests for India, scoring 2109 runs at an average of 31.47 and taking 162 wickets at 32.31. Those numbers don’t truly do justice to the impact he had on Indian cricket.

The left-arm wrist-spinner was pivotal to India’s first ever Test victory in 1952 over England, taking 12 wickets on a Chennai pitch that offered him little assistance. That same year he posted scores of 72 and 184 in a Test at Lord’s where he bowled a gargantuan 97 overs.

In 1956, he scored 231 in a record-breaking 413-run opening stand with P Roy at Chennai against New Zealand. That was one of the five Test centuries he scored in a career that also garnered eight five-wicket hauls.