|
Ravi Shastri nearly mirrored the career of the great Yorkshire and
England all-rounder Wilfred Rhodes. He began his career as a left-arm
spinner, then worked his way up to open the batting. The only difference
was that while Rhodes started at number 11 in the batting order,
Shastri was number 10. The Bombay all-rounder's other claim to fame is
being the second man, after Garry Sobers, to hit six 6s in an over. That
was off a spinner from Baroda called Tilek Raj in a Ranji Trophy match
in 1984-85. Shastri was just 19 when he was called to New Zealand in
1981 and he was playing in the Wellington Test before he had time to
unpack. He had six wickets in his first Test, then 5-125 in Auckland. He
began to work his way up the batting order and was opening in England
in 1982. Against Pakistan in 1982-83 he scored 128, but he went back
down the order in the West Indies when he made 102 in Antigua. Against
England in 1984-85 he made 142 in the first Test in Bombay and 111 in
Calcutta. He made 125 against Pakistan at Jaipur in 1986-87. His bowling
was more flat and defensive than the specialist Indian spinners and he
often bowled large numbers of overs inexpensively on flat wickets. He
bowled 63 overs in an innings to take 3-104 in Madras in 1981-82 against
England, and 52 against Pakistan in Nagpur in 1983-84 for a return of
5-75. In Faisalabad in 1984-85 he followed an innings of 139 with 50
overs, although they only brought him the wicket of Javed Miandad. In
the 1983 World Cup he took 3-26 against West Indies at Old Trafford, but
was not in the team that won the final. In 1987 he was a semi-finalist.
(Bob Harragan).
|
This photo of Ravi Shastri was taken on 20th. July 1990. Image George Herringshaw. ©
| Ravi Shastri captained India just once, in Madras in 1987-88 when Dilip
Vengsarkar could not take his place in the side. That was a match in
which Narendra Hirwani spun the West Indies to defeat on his debut, his
leg spin accounting for 16 wickets. Returning to the ranks when New
Zealand visited India in 1988-89, Shastri went to West Indies as the
number three batsman, scoring 107 and taking 4-78 in Barbados. He was
opening the batting again in England in 1990, scoring 100 in the first
Test at Lord's and 187 at the Oval. He followed that with 88 against Sri
Lanka at Chandigarh in 1990-91. In Australia in 1991-92 he scored 206
in the third Test at Sydney, taking 4-45 in the same match. He played in
Zimbabwe's inaugural Test at Harare when India went there in 1992-93,
taking the last wicket of a drawn match when he had Andy Pycroft lbw.
The Indian team went on to visit South Africa for the first time, but
Shastri's best score was 23 in Johannesburg. He had adapted his mainly
defensive style effectively for one day cricket, pushing regular singles
for the bulk of the innings before a burst of furious straight hitting
in the final overs which often brought him long-range sixes. In the 1992
World Cup he used it to good effect when he made 57 against England in
Perth, but that was one of only two matches in which he appeared in that
competition. (Bob Harragan). |