Yashpal Sharma

Yashpal Sharma (; 11 August 1954 – 13 July 2021) was an Indian international cricketer. He was an explosive middle order batsman who played during the 1970s and 80s. He was a member of the India team that won the 1983 Cricket World Cup. He represented India in 37 Tests and 42 One Day Internationals (ODIs) between 1978 and 1985. His nephew Chetan Sharma was also a cricketer. He was fondly nicknamed the Crisis Man for India. Early career Yashpal Sharma first drew attention when he scored 260 for Punjab schools against Jammu & Kashmir schools in 1972. Within two years, he was in the state team, and a member of the North Zone team that won the Vizzy Trophy. His first major innings in first class cricket was a 173 in the Duleep Trophy for the North, against the South Zone which had Chandrasekhar, Erapalli Prasanna and Venkataraghavan. International career His knock of 99 in the Irani Trophy helped secure a place for him in the Indian team in a tour of Pakistan a few weeks later. He subsequently made his ODI debut during the tour of Pakistan on 13 October 1978. He went to England in 1979 as a part of the team that played in the World Cup. He did not play in any of the matches during the 1979 World Cup but he appeared in three Test series that followed. He scored 884 runs at an average of 58 in the tour matches. He made his Test debut on 2 August 1979 against England at Lord's. His form in England assured him of a Test place in the next few games. After scoring a pair against Australia in the Kanpur Test, Sharma scored his first Test hundred in the very next match. He nearly missed out on another century as he scored unbeaten 85 runs off 117 balls in the next Test at Calcutta, but with 3.4 overs still left before the end of the Test, he appealed against light. He made his highest first class score against Victoria in 1980–81, a 465-minute 201*. In the Adelaide Test of that series, Sharma hit 47 in a 147 run partnership with Sandeep Patil. This was his only innings of some consequence in the tour and he was soon dropped. On his comeback, at Madras in 1981–82, he hit 140 against England. He batted through the full second day of the match with Gundappa Viswanath and their third wicket partnership contributed 316 runs. At Port of Spain next year, he was struck on the head by Malcolm Marshall and forced to retire. However, he came back to bat in the same innings and scored a fifty.