Iftikhar Ali Khan, the Nawab of Pataudi, is the only Test cricketer to have played for both England and India. Born into the princely family of Pataudi, in the Punjab (approximately 53 miles away from Delhi), he arrived in Britain in 1926 to further his education. He joined Balliol College, Oxford, in 1927 and won hockey and cricketing blues for the University. In a notorious incident playing in the 1931 match against Cambridge, A. Ratcliffe of Cambridge set a new record for the University Match with 201 runs. Pataudi declared that he would beat that record and did exactly that in the next innings, scoring 238 not out. This record stood until 2005.

Pataudi made the England squad for the infamous Bodyline series tour of Australia in 1932-3. On his Ashes and Test debut, he scored a century, but was dropped after the second test. He only played three tests for England, with a recall in one of the Ashes tests in 1934. Pataudi returned to India and had a chance to captain India in 1936, but withdrew from the series against England. In 1946, he did captain India against England, but he was 36 years old by then.

In 1931, Iftikhar was formally installed as ruler, Nawab, of Pataudi. After Indian independence in 1947, he gave up the principality and worked for the Indian Foreign Office. He died in 1952, while playing polo, in Delhi, leaving his wife, Sajida Sultan, the daughter of the Nawab of Bhopal, three daughters, and an eleven-year old son, Mansur, who would become one of India's greatest cricketing captains.