by Abhishek Mukherjee
1947.
Independent India were on their first overseas tour, in Australia, against a side that would return from England undefeated less than a year later.
The touring squad included Khokon, a wicketkeeper who looked younger than his age. When asked by the Australians media what this meant, the response was prompt: "In Calcutta they call all babies Khokon. The name just stuck to me. In fact, I am not eighteen as some seem to think; I am twenty."
Sen kept wonderfully on that tour. In the fifth Test, for example, he conceded just four byes in an innings that spanned the equivalent of 170.4 six-ball overs.
He impressed Oldfield so much that the great man gifted him a pair of gloves. But the moment he cherished more came in the tour match against South Australia, when he stumped Bradman off Mankad.
India had used six wicketkeepers in their first 12 Tests. Sen alone played 14 Tests after that despite competition from Nana Joshi, Madhav Mantri, Ebrahim Maka, and V Rajindernath. There is little doubt that he was India's first regular wicketkeeper, and the finest till Tamhane.
It was a reasonable career. While his batting never came off at the highest level, he scored three First-Class hundreds. He also took a hat-trick but, contrary to popular belief, he was not playing as a wicketkeeper that day.
Probir Sen, the first Bengali to play Test cricket, was born on 31 May 1926.