Deepak Shodhan

Roshan Harshadlal "Deepak" Shodhan  pronunciation  (18 October 1928 – 16 May 2016) was an Indian Test cricketer.

Shodhan was a left hand batsman and occasional medium pace bowler. He was the second Indian batsman, after Lala Amarnath, to score a hundred on Test debut. He was selected against Pakistan on the weight of the 89* that he scored for West Zone against the Pakistanis earlier in the tour. Named as 12th man for the 1952 Calcutta test, he took the field after Vijay Hazare was unable to play. At Calcutta in a curious Indian innings where every batsman reached double figures, Shodhan scored 110 at batting at No.8 . In an interview Shodhan later reminiscenced about his hundred: "I was an attacking player myself. I relished the attacking field set by Pakistan. Even when the ninth wicket was lost, I managed to hit two consecutive boundaries to reach 100". He added 40 runs for the last wicket with Ghulam Ahmed.

Shodhan scored 45 and 11 in the first Test at Port of Spain against West Indies that followed. He missed the next three Tests, and when picked for the last match of the series he fell ill. He scored an important 15* in the second innings batting at No.10. That turned out to be his last Test as he was never again selected to play for India.

The exclusion of Shodhan from the Indian team thereafter has never been convincingly explained. It is sometimes attributed to the eccentricities of the selectors. In his book The Covers Are Off published in 2004, Rajan Bala interviewed the various people involved, and it seems to indicate that it was the animosity between Shodhan and Vinoo Mankad that ended his career . Mankad, a senior player in the side, was apparently not in good terms with Vijay Hazare who had captained India in the series in West Indies.