Sir Garry Sobers faced Subhash Gupte at his best and regards him as finest legspinner he faced. In an exclusive chat with Wisden.com, he shares his memories.
Video interview

I received, not long ago, a list containing a number of names from England asking me to choose the best Indian XI of all time. I was shocked to see a name like Subhash Gupte was not in the line-up. I've always recognised Subhash Gupte as one of the best legspinners in the world; one of the best that I have ever seen up to today. And I was so shocked that I had to ring them and tell them: "I see a number of names here but no Subhash Gupte and he is one of the best legspinners I have seen."

He certainly stands out in my mind. I think when Subhash came to the West Indies in 1953, I didn't play against him because I don't think he played the inter-colonial games, as they were called in those days. He played the Test match and he got a lot of wickets in the Caribbean. And in those days all the wickets were so good that spinners hated coming to the West Indies to bowl on them.

I recall one particular Test in Barbados when they sent for Robert Christiani, who they said was the best player of spin bowling. When he came in to bat, Subhash was bowling. Robert Christiani ran down the wicket and Subhash left him so far down the wicket that the other batsman could have run up and Robert Christiani could have been in.

That was the type of bowler Subhash was. He flighted the ball beautifully, his accuracy was absolutely impeccable. He used to bowl two googlies, one from the top and one that he used to bowl from shoulder height. And that made him, in my estimation, the best legspinner I have played against. He also performed against us at Kanpur in the 1959 series where he got about nine wickets and bowled extremely well.

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