He played eight Tests for India, making his debut against England in the Bombay Test of the 1951-52 series. In many ways, that game provided him the best moment of his career. He scored an unbeaten half century first up but he values his second innings effort of 42 sweeter. "We were facing defeat and I was able to play that innings to save the match. I was very pleased by the effort," said Gopinath of the drawn Test.

In 1968-69, he replaced Ghulam Ahmed as the South Zone selector on the national selection panel and became chief selector in 1972-73, ending his tenure in 1976-77. "I thoroughly enjoyed my stint as selector. I had some good colleagues. We may have made mistakes but the idea was always to select the best team," said Gopinath who also did television commentary for Doordarshan.

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