When Sunil Gavaskar indicated that he would like to bat lower down the order in the mid 1980s, the search was on for suitable opening batsmen. And on the basis of some sterling performances on the domestic circuit, Lalchand Rajput was the choice for the tour of Sri Lanka in 1985. Solid rather than spectacular, Rajput batted well on his Test debut scoring 32 and 61, adding 76 runs for the third wicket with Dilip Vengsarkar in the second innings. But after scores of 0 and 12 in the next Test he was replaced by Ravi Shastri and lost his place for good. After his playing days, he served as the joint honorary secretary of the Mumbai Cricket Association and also took up coaching, which included successful stints with the Under-19 team. He was appointed cricket manager before India's successful campaign at the ICC World Twenty20 in South Africa and held the position till the tour of Australia in 2007-08. He then took over as the coach of the Mumbai Indians in the inaugural IPL. However, he hit the headlines for the wrong reasons early in the tournament when he was fined 50% of his match fee for not restraining the captain Harbhajan Singh during his infamous altercation with Sreesanth.
Parab Ramchand and Cricinfo Staff (April 2008)

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Dec 20, 2007 Lalchand Rajput and Greg King await play © Getty Images

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