Pankaj Roy (; 31 May 1928 – 4 February 2001) was an Indian

cricketer Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by st ...

and former national cricket team captain. He was right-handed opening

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, he is best known for establishing the world record opening

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of 413 runs, together with Vinoo Mankad, against

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. The record stood until 2008. In 2000, he was appointed as the Sheriff of Kolkata. He has been honoured with the

Padma Shri Padma Shri (IAST: ''padma śrī''), also spelled Padma Shree, is the fourth-highest civilian award of the Republic of India, after the Bharat Ratna, the Padma Vibhushan and the Padma Bhushan. Instituted on 2 January 1954, the award is confe ...

. His nephew

Ambar Roy Ambar Khirid Roy (5 June 1945 – 19 September 1997) was an Indian cricketer who played in four Test matches Test match in some sports refers to a sporting contest between national representative teams and may refer to: * Test cricket * Test ...

and son Pranab Roy also played Test cricket for India. He was a student of Vidyasagar College.

First-class career

Roy played domestic cricket in India for the

Bengal cricket team The Bengal cricket team represents the Indian state of West Bengal in domestic first-class cricket. It is considered Eastern India's strongest cricket team. The team plays its home matches at the historic Eden Gardens in Kolkata. Bengal has wo ...

. He scored a century on his first-class debut in 1946–47 and went on to score 33 hundreds, scoring a total of 11868 first class runs at 42.38.

Test career

When England toured India in 1951, Roy was selected for the Indian squad and made his Test debut at Delhi. Despite making just 12 in his debut innings he scored 2 centuries in the series. The following summer he toured England and had a contrasting series, making 5 ducks in his 7 innings, including Frank Tyson's debut first class wicket. This tally included a pair at

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. He was among the four victims (others being Datta Gaekwad, Vijay Manjrekar and Madhav Mantri) in India's miserable 0–4 start in the second innings of the Headingley Test of 1952 with Fred Trueman playing havoc. He would hit five

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centuries for

India India, officially the Republic of India ( Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the ...

, with a top score of 173. He captained India in a Test match in England in 1959, which India lost.

References

External links

*
"Extracting history from myth"
by Suresh Menon 1928 births 2001 deaths Bengali cricketers India Test cricket captains India Test cricketers Indian cricketers East Zone cricketers Bengal cricketers Mumbai cricketers Indian Universities cricketers Recipients of the Padma Shri in sports Cricketers from Kolkata Sheriffs of Kolkata {{India-cricket-bio-1920s-stub