Pananmal Punjabi

Pananmal Punjabi Biography

A dogged opener, Pananmal Punjabi played 5 Tests, all of them on the Pakistan tour of 1954-55. His 164 runs came at 16, and he never went past 33; however, to be fair, he finished fourth on the batting charts for India that series, after Pankaj Roy, Polly Umrigar, and Vijay Manjrekar. He and Roy opened in all 5 Tests, and had 2 fifty-run partnerships.

Born in Karachi, Punjabi moved to Gujarat with his family after partition. He first rose into prominence against the touring Pakistanis of 1952-53, when he scored 142 for West Zone. He scored 465 runs at 93 with 3 hundreds the next season, including 107 and 24 against a Commonwealth XI attack that consisted of Peter Loader, Sam Loxton, and Jack Iverson. The season led to a Test spot.

Punjabi played only 32 matches a First-Class career spanning 16 seasons, scoring 1,953 runs at 38, converting 6 of his fifty-plus scores to hundreds. He was also a part-time wicketkeeper.

Punjabi remains a quizmaster’s favourite: his surname was Punjabi; he was born in Karachi; he spoke Sindhi; he played most of his First-Class cricket for Gujarat; and stretching things a bit, he worked for Burmah Shell.

He passed away at 90.

Abhishek Mukherjee

Pananmal Punjabi Batting & Fielding Averages

Career

Avg

100s

50s

Test

ODIs

T20s

World Cup

Pananmal Punjabi Bowling Averages

Career	M	B	R	W	Avg	EC	SR	5WI	10WM	BBI	BBM
Test	--	--	--	--	--	--	--	--	--
ODIs	--	--	--	--	--	--	--	--	--
T20s	--	--	--	--	--	--	--	--	--
World Cup	--	--	--	--	--	--	--	--	--		--