The Asia Cup tournament was first played in April 1984. The Indian team led by Sunil Gavaskar won the opening Asia Cup by defeating arch-rivals Pakistan in Sharjah. Surender Khanna emerged as the unexpected star of the Indian team with 'Man of the Series' in that tournament, who returned to the team after five years. Today is the birthday of this former wicketkeeper batsman from Delhi. He turned 64 on 3 June.
In fact, the regular wicket-keeper Syed Kirmani was not picked by the selectors for the tour of England in 1979 and gave Surinder Khanna a chance. Khanna scored Ranji Champion (1978-79) for the first time by scoring centuries (111 and 128 runs) in both innings of the Ranji Trophy final against Karnataka. In that Ranji season, he scored 657 runs with great batting and as a reward, he was given a place in the Indian team.
... but he could not take advantage of the opportunity. He made his debut during the 1979 World Cup played in England, which is considered to be the worst World Cup campaign ever for India. India lost all three matches and Surinder Khanna (0, 7 and 10 runs) could not run as well. Because of this, the second new wicketkeeper Bharat Reddy was dropped in the four Test matches series against England.
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