Pankaj Roy
 Pankaj Roy (left) and Vinoo Mankad returning to the pavilion after their world record opening partnership of 413 runs, Madras, 11 January 1956. Their record stood for 52 years. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Born |
31 May 1928 Calcutta (now Kolkata), Bengal, British India | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Died | 4 February 2001 (aged 72) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Batting style | Right-hand bat | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bowling style | Right-arm medium | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Relations |
Brother: Nemailal Roy Son: Pranab Roy Nephew: Ambar Roy | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| International information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| National side | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Career statistics | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Source: | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pankaj Roy 
pronunciation (31 May 1928 – 4 February 2001) was an Indian cricketer. A right-handed opening batsman, he is best known for establishing the world record opening partnership of 413 runs, together with Vinoo Mankad, against New Zealand at Chennai. The record stood until 2008. He was honoured with the Padma Shri. His nephew Ambar Roy and son Pranab Roy also played Test cricket for India.
First-class career
Roy played domestic cricket in India for Bengal cricket team. He scored a century on his first-class debut in 1946-47 and went on to score 33 hundreds, scoring a total of 11868 first class runs at 42.38.
Test career
When England toured India in 1951, Roy was selected for the Indian squad and made his Test debut at Delhi. Despite making just 12 in his debut innings he scored 2 centuries in the series. The following summer he toured England and had a contrasting series, making 5 ducks in his 7 innings, including Frank Tyson's debut first class wicket. This tally included a pair at Old Trafford. He was among the four victims (others being Datta Gaekwad, Vijay Manjrekar and Madhav Mantri) in India’s miserable 0-4 start in the second innings of the Headingley Test of 1952 with Fred Trueman playing havoc. He would hit five Test centuries for India, with a top score of 173.
He captained India in a Test match in England in 1959, which India lost.
| Preceded by Datta Gaekwad |
Indian National Test Cricket Captain 1959 (1 Test Match) |
Succeeded by Datta Gaekwad |
External links
- Player profile: Pankaj Roy from CricketArchive
- Player profile: Pankaj Roy from ESPNcricinfo
- "Extracting history from myth" by Suresh Menon