Mohinder Amarnath

This series saw Imran Khan at his lethal best, supported by the canny Sarfraz Nawaz. In match after match India crumbled against the fiery pace of Pakistan, losing the Second, third and fourth tests 3–0 . Imran Khan who took 40 wickets in the series was jointly awarded "Man of the Series" with Mohinder Amarnath. The catastrophic series for India hastened the end of the career of master batsman Gundappa Viswanath. Mohinder Amarnath was the sole saving grace for the Indian batting line-up for the series as a whole. (An aside – Sunil Gavaskar carried his bat in one innings of the series).

Gideon Haigh writing in The Age says: "In an era replete with fast bowling and unrestricted in use of the bouncer, he never stopped hooking – despite many incentives to do so. He received a hairline fracture of the skull from Richard Hadlee, was knocked unconscious by Imran Khan, had teeth knocked out by Malcolm Marshall and was hit in the jaw so painfully by Jeff Thomson in Perth that he could eat only ice cream for lunch. 'What separated Jimmy from the others,' Michael Holding said, 'was his great ability to withstand pain . . . A fast bowler knows when a batsman is in pain. But Jimmy would stand up and continue.' " .

Mohinder Amarnath presented a popular weekly cricket coaching TV programme in the late 80s/early 90s. The program went by the name of 'Cricket with Mohinder Amarnath'. It featured technique presentation and discussion with guest speakers who were mostly Indian national team members at the time. It had a decent following among the youth of that time who were hooked to Cricket especially after Reliance Cup was held in India in 1987, given that the program was available on the national channel Doordarshan thus taking cricket to the masses. The title song of this program 'Khel hi hain hamara jeevan...' was very catchy. Young Sachin Tendulkar, a 15 years old, was interviewed by Amarnath for the program. Sachin was playing wonderfully in the domestic leagues, and was showing enormous potential. After a year, he was inducted into the Indian team for the Pakistan tour.

Mohinder had some unique dismissals. He is the only Indian who has been dismissed on handling the ball. He was dismissed on 9 February 1986 also making him the first one to be dismissed for handling the ball in One-Day Internationals. He is also the only Indian to be dismissed for obstructing the field in One-Day Internationals. He has also been dismissed 'hit wicket'.

Mohinder Amarnath is best known for his legendary performance in the 1983 Cricket World Cup. He was awarded "Man of the Match" in the finals and semi-finals, playing a star role in leading India to their first ever One Day International title and first World Cup win.

Fiery fast bowlers Imran Khan of Pakistan and Malcolm Marshall of West Indies have praised his batsmanship, courage and ability to endure and master pain. In 1982–83 Mohinder played 11 Test matches against Pakistan (5) and the West Indies (6) and scored over 1000 runs in the two series.

Imran Khan regarded Mohinder so highly that in his book "All Round View" he went on record to say that in the 1982–83 season, Mohinder was quite simply the best batsman in the world. Imran further went on to state that Mohinder should have played non-stop for India right from his debut in 1969 to the time he retired. (After his debut series in 1969, he had to wait until 1975 to make it into the team).

Except for the period 1982–83, Mohinder never held a steady place in the Indian Test side and would frequently get dropped. Mohinder is known as the Comeback Man of Indian Cricket. During his two decades at the top, he was dropped from the Indian side on several occasions and each time he fought his way back with sterling performances, playing excellent domestic cricket and making it hard for the national selectors to ignore him.

In the Bridgetown Test during India's tour of the West Indies in 1982–83, Amarnath had to retire for stitches after being hit on the head. On returning to the game, he faced one of history's most lethal fast bowlers Michael Holding. It was a given that Holding would try to intimidate Amarnath by bowling a bouncer, and indeed he did so. While most would expect that a batsman in such a situation would do the prudent thing and duck, instead Amarnath stood his ground and hooked the ball to the boundary. However the West Indies bowling attack comprising Malcolm Marshall at his best, Michael Holding, Winston Davis and Wayne Daniel would wreak their most lethal vengeance upon Amarnath during their 1983/84 tour of India by restricting him to only 1 run in six innings, during which Holding scalped Amarnath three times for a duck. Amarnath had scores of 0,0,0,1,0,0 and was hence dropped just months after his career-high success at the 1983 World Cup.

He played an important role in famous chase in Queen's Park Oval, Port of Spain, Trinidad in 1976 tour. He made 85 in the second innings taking India to the brink of historic win.

Mohinder made his debut against Australia at Chennai in December 1969, as a quick-bowling all rounder. At his peak he was a top order batsman who mainly played at No. 3 for India. He was also handy with the ball, bowling swingers and cutters with great skill and control. He had a unique run-up where he slowed down as he reached the bowling crease. Behind his seemingly lethargic demeanor were nerves of steel.

Mohinder “Jimmy” Amarnath Bhardwaj pronunciation  (help ·info ) (born 24 September 1950) is an Indian former cricketer and current cricket analyst. He is the son of Lala Amarnath, the first post-independence captain of India, and Kailash Kumari. His brother Surinder Amarnath was a Test player. Another brother Rajinder Amarnath is a former first class cricket and current cricket coach.