Born on 9th May 1963 in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, former Test and ODI player for India, and one time Test captain, Sandhya Agarwal.
Sandhya made her Test debut in 1983/84 against Jill Kennare’s touring Australian team in the third Test of the series, played at Ahmedabad. Shantha Rangaswamy won the toss and chose to bat and it was the beginning of a wonderful career as an opener for the debutant as she helped herself to a half century, scoring 71.
It was an exact repeat in Sandhya’s ODI debut in the same season against the Australians, where she scored a half century in her first innings, this time with 64. It was quite apparent that this new batter was made for international cricket.
As if the Aussies hadn’t already seen enough of Sandhya, in the fourth Test of that same series she brought up her maiden Test century, 134 at Wankhede Stadium in Bombay (Mumbai).
It wasn’t just the Aussies who witnessed the superior blade of this player. Against New Zealand in that same summer of 1984/85, Sandhya brought up her second Test century, 106 at Barabati Stadium, Cuttack and very nearly a third with 98 at Lucknow. India had unearthed a run machine, but there was more to come.
England weren’t spared. Agarwal was no home track bully. At Blackpool she scored 132, and at Worcester, she broke a world record. Her 190 in a 563 minute stay at the crease was the highest score in a women’s Test match, eclipsing Betty Snowball’s 189 against New Zealand in 1934/35.
Sandhya clearly enjoyed the extra time available to bat in the long format of the game but she was also quite handy in ODI cricket where she played 21 matches which included the 1993 World Cup. She scored 567 runs at 31.50 with a high score of 72, one of four half centuries.
On tour in Australia in 1990/91, Sandhya stepped up to replace the injured Shubhangi Kulkarni and became Test captain number five for India. It was just for the single Test match but surely there is no greater honour than to lead your country in Test cricket.
Sandhya played 13 Test matches for India and is their greatest opening batter. She scored 1110 runs, the highest for an Indian player and indeed the only player to pass 1000 runs for the country. Her four centuries are the most by any Indian player and her batting average of 50.45 is a standout.
A coach and selector after she retired, Sandhya Agarwal was presented with the Arjuna Award for cricket and in 2017 offered the honorary life membership by The Marylebone Cricket Club.