Pataudi, The story of a Nawab

Known throughout his cricket career as the Nawab of Pataudi Jr, a title abolished years later during Indira Gandhi's reforms, Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi – "Tiger" or "Pat" to his friends – earned a special place in cricket history for his extraordinary success as a batsman after losing most of the sight in his right eye in a car accident in Hove, East Sussex, in July 1961. At that time, Pataudi, who has died aged 70, was a highly promising batsman who had made a name for himself at Winchester College, and for Oxford University and Sussex (his debut for the club came aged 16).

His father, Iftikhar Ali Khan, the previous Nawab of Pataudi, had played for England in Australia during the 1932-33 Bodyline series, when his relations with the captain, Douglas Jardine, were frosty; he later led Indiaon the 1946 tour of England. Pataudi Sr died while playing polo in Delhi on his son's 11th birthday. The youngster was soon to have the satisfaction of breaking Jardine's batting records at Winchester.

The accident seemed certain to end the talented Pataudi Jr's career. It was discouraging to find that when he tried to light a cigarette he missed the end of it by a quarter of an inch. And yet before the year was out, after testing himself in net sessions, he was chosen to play for India in the first of what amounted to an extraordinary tally of 46 Test matches between 1961 and 1975. The cricket world was astounded when, in his third Test, later in that 1961-62 series, he scored 103 (in only two-and-a-half hours) at Madras, the victory securing India's first series win against England.

Five more Test hundreds followed, all steeped in a sense of wonder that a man could overcome such a serious visual impairment to succeed (cap peak pulled down low to the right helped) against the world's most testing bowling. Equally dramatic was his appointment as India's captain during the tour of the West Indies early in 1962. At 21, Pataudi became the youngest Test captain to that time. Placing himself in the middle order, he managed only two 40s in his six remaining innings as India were pounded.

He was captain in 40 of his 46 Tests, an innovative, dignified and much respected leader with a sharp sense of humour, adored by his players, envied for his calmness and intelligence, never one to reveal his emotions and always ready to turn defence into attack. Recognising the dearth of quality fast bowlers in India, he based his strategy on spinners, showing that in the absence of good fast men, three talented slow bowlers were better than two.

Understandably, Pataudi's batting was inconsistent. Yet from time to time he played an innings the dash and quality of which – even if India ended up losing – no onlooker would forget. Leading India against the 1963-64 England side, he failed in his first seven innings of the series. Yet in the drawn fourth Test, at Delhi, he unfurled India's first double-century against England.

Against England in 1967 he stroked a glorious 148 in the Headingley Test which would remain in TV viewers' minds forever. His athletic fielding remained memorable too.

Pataudi's 75 and 85 against Australia in 1967-68 at Melbourne (made not just with one eye but on one good leg, in dim light and on a green-tinged first-day pitch) had the former Australian batsman Lindsay Hassett comparing him with the peerless Donald Bradman.

Compensation for losing all four Tests in Australia came in Dunedin, New Zealand, with India's first-ever overseas Test victory. After home series against New Zealand and Australia, it seemed that his Test career was at an end when Ajit Wadekar became captain. Pataudi played on for Sussex (88 matches from 1957 to 1970) and for Hyderabad. But following Wadekar's exit, Pataudi returned for the 1974-75 home series against the West Indies at Calcutta notching another gratifying mark when his side beat them for the first time in India. But his own batting had fallen away and this was to be his last Test series. In all, he had scored 2,793 runs in Test matches at an average of 34.91, with six centuries.

In later years he did some modelling, cricket commentary and edited Sportsworld magazine. He was also involved with the Indian Premier League until a recent disagreement. A month ago Pataudi was seen at the Oval, presenting the Pataudi trophy to England captain Andrew Strauss. Shortly afterwards he contracted a lung infection, which proved fatal. Pataudi had willed his "good" eye for use in a transplant at the Venu Eye Institute in Delhi, for which he had been an ambassador for 10 years.

Appointed as captain of a World XI in 1968, he played 499 innings in first-class cricket, scoring 15,425 runs at 33.67, with 33 hundreds. He was revered by all in the cricket world. India's batting star of the recent series, Rahul Dravid, described Pataudi ("Just call me John Smith") as a "romantic figure". The novelist and historian Mukul Kesavan went further: "He remained untouched by the squabbles and sleaze that attended cricket's transformation into big business in India. As a consequence, death finds him happily embalmed in fond radio memories: still tigerish in the covers, still a prince among men."

He survived by his wife, the former actor Sharmila Tagore; a son, Saif; and daughters, Soha and Saba.

• Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi, cricketer, born 5 January 1941; died 22 September 2011