‘One of the best cricket books to be published anywhere in many years. Forget the DVD; if you want to relive the tour, in all its dramatic complexity, read Bhattacharya’
— Mike Marqusee, Wisden Asia Cricket
‘Delightfully piquant . . . gently illuminating . . . emphatic and all-encompassing . . . The cricket book we’ve been waiting for is finally here’— Jai Arjun Singh, Business Standard
‘Profound and sparkling in turn, it was not only an enlightening revelation for anyone enjoying England’s ongoing tour of the subcontinent but, once the fuss dies down over Freddie and his white September mob, it will surely be logged as the year’s cricket classic’— Frank Keating, Guardian
‘Pundits from Pakistan has done what few cricket books, Indian or foreign, could do – it has raised the bar’— Sharda Ugra, India Today
‘Part reportage, part travelogue, part memoir, this is cricket writing . . . a celebration of the best-known sentence in C.L.R. James’s Beyond a Boundary: “What do they know of cricket who only cricket know?” ’— Soumya Bhattacharya, Hindustan Times
‘Brilliant’ — Mike Selvey, Guardian
‘Bhattacharya’s pen, like V.V.S. Laxman’s bat, “describes curves where others make straight lines.” There is such sweet timing in the delivery of his sentences . . . Written with a rare flair and a wonderful knowledge of the game, Pundits from Pakistan is a display of high performance under pressure’ — Amitava Kumar, The Hindu
‘An utterly engaging account of a young man’s journey through a strangely beguiling yet distant neighbour’ — Hari Menon, Outlook, Outlook Traveller
‘An outstanding book’ — Devangshu Datta, Hindustan Times
‘Read it for the cricket, or for the gossip, or as a travelogue, or for the historical analysis, or just for Bhattacharya’s particular brand of wit, but read it’ — Nilanjana S. Roy, Business Standard
‘Never before have I come across a cricket book such as this’—Raja M, Asia Times Online
‘Tours to Pakistan have a way of discovering talent. On an earlier occasion, it was Sachin Tendulkar. On this one it has to be Rahul Bhattacharya’ — Suresh Menon, Deccan Herald
‘One of the most entertaining and stylishly written pieces of non-fiction I’ve ever read’ — Kamila Shamsie, Newsline magazine
‘A special tour found a special writer. Bhattacharya was young, fresh, with a superb eye, a keen mind and a wry touch. Sport is not easy to write and first books are almost never so good’ — Rohit Brijnath on his top 10 sports books, Tabla
‘As rich and detailed a picture of subcontinental cricket as I think I have ever read . . . Like the tour it describes, it is something a little bit special’ — Marcus Berkmann, The Wisden Cricketer
‘An intelligent, and witty, probe into the relations between two nations divided by politics and history and united by culture and cricket. Bhattacharya is a superbly attentive listener who conveys what he hears (and sees) in stylish prose. A most impressive book by a hugely talented writer.’ — Ramachandra Guha
‘A vital mix of history, humour and insight . . . A beautiful and brilliant work, the best cricket book I have encountered in many a long year.’ — Peter Roebuck
‘Exquisitely written, peppered with incredible anecdotes about the cricketing rivalry between the two countries, Pundits from Pakistan rekindles the memories of the breathtaking finishes in one-day Internationals, the forever fluctuating fortunes of the Test series, and the frisson the subcontinent experienced during the six weeks of flamboyant cricket which, in some ways, redefined the delectable Orwellian definition of serious sports as ‘war minus the shooting’.’ – Ajaz Ashraf, Daily Times
