Mohinder Amarnath aka Jimmy, Was a compulsive hook shot batsmen, he used his father’s advice to take up the challenge and never back away from his problems, mind you it did him good because after receiving blows from Andy Roberts, Dennis Lillee, Imran Khan, Croft, Garner and many fast bowlers early in his career in late 70s and early 80s, he became a fearless player of pace bowling, he was India’s best batsmen in the 80s and arguably the best batsmen to have a sound technique with and unorthodox side on stance on the crease.
Mohinder Amarnath probably made one impact to the Indian cricket that only gavaskar at the time was trying to do was to prove that Indian batsmen were not rag dolls or can be pushed around with intimidatory bowling such as Andy Roberts and Co. India in the 80s were just beggining to find its stardom, Under Kapil Dev and Sunil Gavaskar in the 80s India had a formidable and a fearless batting side. Amarnath was prince amongst them, and a pinch hitter Kris Srikkanth was his ally.
Then we had Yashpal Sharma and Dilip Vengsarkar the vintage players, and also we had the service of sandeep patil and syed kirmani. Then the bowlers took up the rest of the slot. Amarnath made one memorable magical year his own and it was 1983, he not only challenged the westindies in westindies with his hooking that year but he also made the breakthought for India in the world cup that year bagging man of the match awards in both semifinal and finals.
He once made a memorable hundread in 1985 against pakistan when he was called back after failing to perform in 6 tests. He handled Imran Khan and Co. as if they were medium pace bowlers. Amarnath was a courageous and sometimes surprising with his quick reflexes in the field and his gentle medium pace bowling which proved helpful at crucial stages.
Today if India has someone like him in the team, India could well beat australia, he was a semi allrounder on his days. Truly a courageous players.