JerryGuerrero at 06:55, 26 January 2026

2026-01-26T06:55:32Z

New page

{{Use Indian English|date=July 2013}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2018}}
{{Infobox royalty
| embed =
| name = Mohammad Iftikhar Ali Khan of Pataudi
| title = [[Nawab of Pataudi]]
| titletext =
| more =
| type =
| image = Iftikhar Ali Khan Pataudi 1931cr.jpg
| image_size = 240px
| alt =
| caption = Iftikhar Ali Khan Pataudi in 1931
| succession = [[Nawab of Pataudi]]
| moretext =
| reign = 1917–1948<br>1948–1952 ([[titular ruler]])
| reign-type =
| coronation = December 1931
| cor-type =
| predecessor = Muhammad Ibrahim Ali Khan Pataudi
| pre-type =
| successor = [[Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi]] (as titular ruler)
| suc-type =
| regent =
| reg-type =
| succession1 =
| moretext1 =
| reign1 =
| coronation1 =
| cor-type1 =
| predecessor1 =
| suc-type1 =
| regent1 =
| reg-type1 =
| succession2 =
| moretext2 =
| reign2 =
| reign-type2 =
| coronation2 =
| cor-type2 =
| predecessor2 =
| pre-type2 =
| successor2 =
| suc-type2 =
| regent2 =
| reg-type2 =
| succession3 =
| moretext3 =
| reign3 =
| reign-type3 =
| coronation3 =
| cor-type3 =
| predecessor3 =
| pre-type3 =
| successor3 =
| suc-type3 =
| regent3 =
| reg-type3 = 
| birth_name = Mohammad Iftikhar Ali Khan Pataudi
| birth_date = 16 March 1910
| birth_place = [[Pataudi]], [[Pataudi State]], [[British Raj|British India]] (present-day [[Haryana]], India)
| death_date = {{death date and age|1952|01|05|1910|03|16|df=yes}}
| death_place = [[New Delhi]], India
| burial_place = [[Pataudi]], [[Haryana]], India
| spouse = [[Sajida Sultan]]
| native_lang1 = [[Urdu]]
| native_lang1_name1 =
| spouse-type = Consort
| consort = [[Sajida Sultan]]<yes>
| issue = [[Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi]] and 3 daughters
| issue-link =
| issue-pipe =
| issue-type =
| full name =
| era name =
| era dates =
| regnal name =
| posthumous name =
| temple name =
| house = [[Nawab of Pataudi|Pataudi]]
| house-type = House
| father = Muhammad Ibrahim Ali Khan Pataudi
| mother = Shahar Bano Begum
| religion = [[Sunni Islam]]
| occupation = [[Cricketer]] and [[Civil servant]]
| signature_type =
| signature =
| module = {{Infobox cricketer
| embed = yes
| country = England
| country2 = India
| internationalspan = 1932–1934
| internationalspan2 = 1946
| nickname = Pat
| heightft = 6
| heightinch = 0
| batting = Right-handed
| international = true
| testdebutdate = 2 December
| testdebutyear = 1932
| testdebutfor = England
| testdebutagainst = Australia
| testcap = 265
| testcap2 = 32
| lasttestdate = 20 August
| lasttestyear = 1946
| lasttestfor = India
| lasttestagainst = England
| club3 = [[Southern Punjab cricket team (India)|Southern Punjab]]
| year3 = 1945/46
| club2 = [[Worcestershire County Cricket Club|Worcestershire]]
| year2 = 1932–1938
| club1 = [[Oxford University Cricket Club|Oxford University]]
| year1 = {{nowrap|1928–1931}}
| columns = 2
| column1 = [[Test cricket|Test]]
| matches1 = 6
| runs1 = 199
| bat avg1 = 19.90
| 100s/50s1 = 1/0
| top score1 = 102
| deliveries1 = 0
| wickets1 = –
| bowl avg1 = –
| fivefor1 = –
| tenfor1 = –
| best bowling1 = –
| catches/stumpings1 = 0/–
| column2 = [[First-class cricket|First-class]]
| matches2 = 127
| runs2 = 8,750
| bat avg2 = 48.61
| 100s/50s2 = 29/34
| top score2 = 238[[not out|*]]
| deliveries2 = 756
| wickets2 = 15
| bowl avg2 = 35.26
| fivefor2 = 1
| tenfor2 = 0
| best bowling2 = 6/111
| catches/stumpings2 = 58/–
| date = 12 May
| year = 2009
| source = http://content-aus.cricinfo.com/ci/content/player/32224.html ESPNcricinfo
}}
}}
[[Nawab]] '''Mohammad Iftikhar Ali Khan Pataudi''', sometimes '''I. A. K. Pataudi''' (16 March 1910 – 5 January 1952), was an Indian [[Princely state#Precedence and prestige|prince]] and cricket player.

He was the [[List of India national cricket captains|captain]] of the [[India national cricket team|India's national cricket team]] during its [[Indian cricket team in England in 1946|tour of England in 1946]]. His son [[Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi|Mansoor]] also later served as captain of the India cricket team.

He also played [[Test cricket]] for the [[England cricket team|England team]] in 1932 and 1934, making him one of the few cricketers to have played Test cricket for two countries and the only Test cricketer to have played for both India and England.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.icc-cricket.com/news/691775 |title=Royalty on the cricket field |work=International Cricket Council |access-date=18 May 2018}}</ref> He played in six Tests in all, three as captain of India and three for England.<ref name="OTD">{{cite web |url=http://www.espncricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/149554.html |title=Herschelle the bully |access-date=21 March 2018 |work=ESPNcricinfo|date=16 March 2006 }}</ref>

Pataudi was the ruling [[Nawab]] of the [[princely state]] of [[Pataudi State|Pataudi]] during the [[British Raj]] from 1917 until 1947. After the state was [[political integration of India|absorbed]] into independent India, he was granted a [[Privy Purse in India|privy purse]], certain privileges, and the use of the title ''Nawab of Pataudi'' by the [[Government of India]],<ref name=ramusack-pol-integration>{{cite book|last=Ramusack|first=Barbara N.|authorlink=Barbara Ramusack|title=The Indian princes and their states|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Kz1-mtazYqEC&pg=PA273|year=2004|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-26727-4|page=273|quote=The crucial document was the Instrument of Accession by which rulers ceded to the legislatures of India or Pakistan control over defence, external affairs, and communications. In return for these concessions, the princes were to be guaranteed a privy purse in perpetuity and certain financial and symbolic privileges such as exemption from customs duties, the use of their titles, the right to fly their state flags on their cars, and to have police protection. ... By December 1947 Patel began to pressure the princes into signing Merger Agreements that integrated their states into adjacent British Indian provinces, soon to be called states or new units of erstwhile princely states, most notably Rajasthan, Patiala and East Punjab States Union, and Matsya Union (Alwar, Bharatpur, Dholpur and Karaulli).}}</ref> which he retained until his death in 1952.

==Personal life==
===Early life and family===
Iftikhar Ali Khan was born at the Pataudi House into the family of the [[Nawab of Pataudi|Nawabs of Pataudi]], a small ({{convert|137|km2}}) [[salute state|non-salute]] [[princely state]] near [[Delhi]], located in the present-day [[Gurugram district]] of the [[Indian state]] of [[Haryana]]. The Pataudi family traces their origin to Faiz Talab Khan, an ethnic [[Pashtuns|Pashtun]] of the [[Barech]] tribe, from [[Kandahar]], Afghanistan, who became the first Nawab of the Pataudi State in 1804.<ref name=hindu>[https://web.archive.org/web/20130316043409/http://www.hindu.com/mag/2003/08/03/stories/2003080300740800.htm The Hindu, Sunday, 3 Aug 2003 - ''Royal vignettes: Pataudi: The Afghan connection'']</ref>

Iftikhar Ali Khan was the elder son of Nawab Muhammad Ibrahim Ali Khan of [[Pataudi]] and his wife Shahar Bano Begum, daughter of Amiruddin Ahmad Khan, the [[Nawab of Loharu]]. Thus, he was related to the great Urdu poet [[Mirza Ghalib]] as well as later day [[Prime Minister of Pakistan|Pakistan prime minister]], [[Liaqat Ali Khan]]. His brother, [[Sher Ali Khan Pataudi]] and nephew, Isfandiyar Ali Khan Pataudi, both served as a Major General of [[Pakistan Army]]. His sister, Begum Abida Sultana's son, [[Ashiq Hussain Qureshi]], was a cricketer and civil servant in Pakistan. He became Nawab on his father's death in 1917 and was formally appointed ruler in December 1931. His state became part of the newly [[Dominion of India|independent India]] in 1948. After Indian independence, he was employed in the [[Indian Foreign Office]] until his death.

===Education and marriage===
Educated at Chiefs' College (later renamed [[Aitchison College]]), [[Lahore]], and at [[Balliol College, Oxford]], Iftikhar married [[Sajida Sultan, Begum of Bhopal|Begum Sajida Sultan]], second daughter of [[Hamidullah Khan]], last ruling [[Nawab of Bhopal]], in 1939. Hamidullah Khan was to have been succeeded in the titles and privileges associated with the ruling house of [[Bhopal]] by his eldest daughter [[Abida Sultan]]. She emigrated to [[Pakistan]] in the aftermath of the [[partition of India]]. His voluntary accession of his state to India by going to Delhi has been recounted in [[V P Menon]]'s book ''The story of Integration of Indian States''. V P Menon remembered him as "Great Patriot who unfortunately died young". Sajida therefore succeeded her father and was recognised by the government of India as [[Begum of Bhopal]] in 1961. Upon her demise in 1995, her son Mansoor succeeded to the estates and titles associated with the Nawabs of Bhopal.

==Cricketing career==
Iftikhar Ali Khan was coached at school in India by Oxford cricketer M. G. Slater and then in England by [[Frank Woolley]]. He went to Oxford in 1927. It was two years before he won a [[Oxford blue|blue]]; this was for a 106 and 84 that saved a match against Cambridge. In the 1931 season, he scored 1,307 runs for Oxford and finished with a [[batting average (cricket)|batting average]] of 93, heading the Oxford averages. In the [[The University Match (cricket)|University Match]] that year, [[Alan Ratcliffe]] scored 201 for Cambridge, a new record. Pataudi declared that he would beat it, and hit 238* on the very next day. This stood as a record for the University Match until 2005. Pataudi qualified to play for [[Worcestershire County Cricket Club|Worcestershire]] in 1932 but played only three matches and scored just 65 runs in six innings. However, his slaughter of [[Tich Freeman]] with marvellous footwork during an innings of 165 for the [[Gentlemen v Players|Gentlemen]] at [[Lord's]] in July 1932 gained him a place on the [[Ashes series|Ashes tour]] for that winter. He was selected as a [[Wisden Cricketer of the Year]] in 1932.

===Selection for First Test match===
He was selected for the first Test of the [[English cricket team in Australia in 1932–33|1932–33 Ashes series]], Pataudi followed in the footsteps of [[Ranjitsinhji]] by scoring a century (102) on his Test debut in [[Sydney]], which [[England]] won by 10 wickets. He nonetheless incurred the ire of his captain [[Douglas Jardine]] by dissenting against Jardine's [[bodyline]] tactics. Upon Pataudi's refusal to take his place in a bodyline leg-side field, Jardine retorted, "I see His Highness is a conscientious objector." He was dropped after the second Test in Melbourne, in which he scored 15 and 5, and did not play again that series.

It is said that Jardine told him he would never play for his "adopted country" again,<ref>{{cite news |last=Babar |first=Um-E-Aymen |date=Spring 2022 |title=Choose Your Side |work=The Nightwatchman }}</ref> presumably a comment with racial implications (since Jardine himself had been born in India, and was of Scottish parentage, England was his "adopted country" also). Pataudi did play one further time for England and, towards the end of the 1932-33 tour, he said of Jardine: "I am told he has his good points. In three months I have yet to see them."<ref>Williamson, Martin (25 October 2007) [http://www.espncricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/316847.html Rubbing almost everyone up the wrong way]. ESPNcricinfo</ref>

[[File:Iftikhar Ali Khan Pataudi 1929 (1).jpg|thumbnail|left|150px|Pataudi in 1929, at Oxford]]
1933 was Pataudi's only full season of county cricket, and he batted marvelously, again slaughtering Freeman at Worcester and scoring two other double-hundreds. He finished with 1749 runs at an average of 49, but after more brilliant batting early in 1934 his health broke down and he played just ten games, although recording a batting average of 91.33. He played in his third and last Test for England in June 1934, against Australia at Trent Bridge, scoring 12 and 10. Pataudi did not play at all in 1935 and 1936 and only five times altogether in 1937 and 1938. Nonetheless, in these games, he batted so well that Worcestershire, weak in batting, were always regretting he could not play more often.

He has been considered as a possible captain for the India team in its first Test match in 1932, at Lord's, but withdrew his name from consideration. He was appointed captain for the India tour of England in 1936, but withdrew at the last moment, ostensibly on health grounds. He finally played for India when he captained the [[Indian cricket team in England in 1946|tour to England in 1946]]. Despite averaging 46.71 on the tour, he scored only 55 runs in 5 Test innings, and his captaincy was also criticized. He was Indian Cricketer of the Year in 1946/47. He planned a return to play for Worcestershire for the 1952 county cricket season but died in India before he came back.

Iftikhar Ali Khan was also a fine [[field hockey|hockey]] and billiards player and an accomplished speaker. In 2007, in commemoration of the 75th anniversary of India's Test debut, the [[Marylebone Cricket Club]] commissioned a trophy in Pataudi's name, to be competed for in the Test series between India and England.

==Death and legacy==
In addition to their son, Iftikhar and Sajida were also the parents of three daughters. Iftikhar died in Delhi of a heart attack while playing polo on 5 January 1952,<ref>{{cite web|title=Making Britain: Iftikhar Ali Khan|publisher=[[Open University]] |url=https://www.open.ac.uk/researchprojects/makingbritain/content/iftikhar-ali-khan}}</ref> coincidentally his son [[Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi|Mansoor Ali Khan's]] eleventh birthday. That son succeeded him as the 9th [[Nawab of Pataudi]], and later also served as captain of the Indian cricket team. Iftikhar was also the grandfather of [[Bollywood]] actors [[Saif Ali Khan]] and [[Soha Ali Khan]].

==See also==
*[[Nawab of Pataudi]]
*[[List of cricketers who have played for more than one international team]]

== References ==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*{{commons category-inline|Iftikhar Ali Khan Pataudi}}
*[http://www.rediff.com/cricket/2002/jul/17wisden.htm Resume of cricketing career]
*{{ESPNcricinfo|id=32224}}
*[http://www.uq.net.au/~zzhsoszy/ips/p/pataudi.html Genealogy of the ruling chiefs of Pataudi]
* Mihir Bose, 'Khan, Muhammad Iftikhar Ali, nawab of Pataudi (1910–1952)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2011 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/58835 accessed 22 May 2012]

{{s-start}}
{{succession box|
before=[[Maharajkumar of Vizianagram]]|
title=[[Indian National Test Cricket Captains|Indian National Test Cricket Captain]]|
years=1946|
after=[[Lala Amarnath]]
}}
{{succession box|
before=[[Nawab Muhammad Ibrahim Ali Khan]]|
title=[[Nawab of Pataudi]]|
years=1917–1952|
after=[[Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi|Nawab Mansoor Ali Khan]]
}}
{{s-end}}
{{Indian Test Cricket Captains}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pataudi, Iftikhar Ali Khan}}
[[Category:1910 births]]
[[Category:1952 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian Muslims]]
[[Category:British Muslims]]
[[Category:English cricketers]]
[[Category:England Test cricketers]]
[[Category:India Test cricket captains]]
[[Category:Cricketers who made a century on Test debut]]
[[Category:Indian cricketers]]
[[Category:India Test cricketers]]
[[Category:Indian male field hockey players]]
[[Category:Indian people of Pashtun descent]]
[[Category:Dual international cricketers]]
[[Category:Aitchison College alumni]]
[[Category:Oxford University cricketers]]
[[Category:Gentlemen cricketers]]
[[Category:Worcestershire cricketers]]
[[Category:Wisden Cricketers of the Year]]
[[Category:Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers]]
[[Category:Southern Punjab cricketers]]
[[Category:North Zone cricketers]]
[[Category:Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford]]
[[Category:Cricketers from Bhopal]]
[[Category:English cricketers of 1919 to 1945]]
[[Category:20th-century English sportsmen]]

Iftikhar Ali Khan Pataudi - Revision history

JerryGuerrero at 06:55, 26 January 2026