Nana Joshi, also known as Padmanabh Govind Nana Joshi, was an Indian cricket player who was active primarily in the Test cricket as a wicket keeper. He gained recognition in the arena of cricket by scoring 100 not out for Central Province Governor"s XI against the touring Commonwealth XI. In addition to this, he also dismissed six batsmen. His performance helped him to earn a place in two unofficial Tests against the same team.

Early Life of Nana Joshi
Nana Joshi was born on 27th October 1926 in Baroda, Gujarat. His father died when Nana Joshi was eight years old. His mother brought him up along with his brother in Pune with great hardships. Joshi during his childhood used to clean the utensils and serve food to the students which his mother used to cook. He did his schooling from Bhave School and later attended S. P. Bhau College and Wadia College in Pune.

Career of Nana Joshi
Nana Joshi was a part of Indian team during the time when India had three or four wicket keepers of the same class. He had played only twelve Test matches in his career which spanned for about 10 years. Nana Joshi made his debut in Test cricket in 1951-52 against England in the first Test at Delhi. He exhibited brilliant performance in the first innings by catching two and stumping two others. However his few errors in the second innings put the match in favour of England. Thus Nana Joshi got replaced by Madhav Mantri in the second Test while in the third Probir Sen played as the same. In the fourth Test Joshi was once again selected but was again dropped for the final Test.

In the West Indies tour of 1952-53, Nana Joshi played in four Tests whereas in 1959 he was a part of three Tests in England. In 1957-58 he played in a match in the Pune summer league and contributed in all ten dismissals. In addition to this he also scored 68 out of 117 all out. Nana Joshi once again got selected in the Indian team against Pakistan for the Bombay Test of 1960-61. However his career came to an abrupt end during this time. On the first day in the fifth over, he dropped a simple catch for Hanif Mohammad and the latter went on to score 160. However later in the match Joshi made his career best score of 52 not out. He along with Ramakant Desai put on 149 runs against Pakistan for the ninth wicket. At that time it was just five runs short of the world record and is still an Indian ninth wicket record. However he was not selected further for any other Test.

In 1960-61 and 1962-63, Nana Joshi captained the team of Maharashtra in domestic cricket. He was also a part of the Maharashtra cricket selection committee. In the 1974 he played a benefit match in Sangli earning 1, 25,000 rupees. In 1959-60 in a match against Gujarat he dismissed nine batsmen, which was equal to the then Indian record. Later he used to work at Standard Vacuum and Hindustan Petroleum in Pune.

Death of Nana Joshi
Nana Joshi died of liver cancer in the year 1987.