NEW DELHI: Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi, one of India's most charismatic cricketers and a prolific batsman despite losing an eye, died on Thursday aged 70 following a lung disease, his doctors said.
The former national team captain, better known as the Nawab of Pataudi, was admitted to a New Delhi hospital earlier this month and appeared to be recovering before his condition deteriorated on Wednesday.
“He was suffering from interstitial lung disease which worsened rapidly in spite of the best treatment available,” hospital spokesman S. P. Byotra told the Press Trust of India (PTI).
Pataudi is survived by his actress wife Sharmila Tagore, two daughters and a son, Saif Ali Khan, who is a popular Bollywood actor.
Pataudi played 46 Tests between 1961 and 1975, scoring 2,793 runs at an average of 34.91 with six centuries, including an unbeaten 203 against England in New Delhi in 1964.
An adventurous batsman, who was not afraid to loft the ball over the infield, played most of his career without his right eye, which he lost in a car accident in England in 1961.
Pataudi became India's captain at the age of 21 during a tour of the West Indies in 1962 when the then skipper Nari Contractor was injured after being hit on the head by a bouncer from Charlie Griffith.
He led India in 40 of his 46 Tests, winning nine and securing the country's first series win abroad in 1967 in New Zealand.
Pataudi's father, Iftikhar Ali Khan, represented both England and India in Test cricket.
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