When Shastri chased Miandad with a shoe, and other stories

Javed Miandad: Jibes to jootaWhen Pakistan were in India in 1987, I had a run-in with Miandad after we had won the Hyderabad ODI. It was a close match and had Abdul Qadir not attempted a second run on the last ball of the innings with the scores equal, the match would have been a tie. As it happened, Pakistan lost 7 wickets to our 6, and according to the playing conditions, the match was awarded to us. This didn’t go down well with Miandad. After the match, he came to our dressing room, insisting loudly that we had won because of cheating. With adrenaline still pumping, I couldn’t take Miandad’s jibes, picked up a shoe and chased him back into his dressing room, where Imran Khan intervened and brought peace. medium nocaption85555877 medium nocaption85556637The altercation was quickly forgotten, however. When the teams were travelling for the next match, we spent time together on the flight. The incident never featured in any conversation then or later.Jeff Thomson: One for 21 plus 4Batsmen who’ve played Jeff Thomson say that at his peak he was the fastest in the world, bowling at the speed of light! Even watching him from the safety of the dressing room would leave one trembling…When I was first introduced to Thomson, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I had read so many intimidatory statements attributed to him that I was wary. But he turned out to be a chilled-out, fun character with a laconic sense of humour, a true boy from the country. I once asked him about his best figures in ODIs. ‘One for twenty-one,’ he said, which surprised me, till he added, poker-faced, ‘four in hospital’. medium nocaption85555919 medium nocaption85556666Thankfully, I never had to play him.Sunil Gavaskar: Without fear, and a helmetGavaskar was the best opening batsman I have seen bar none. I was his opening partner in quite a few Tests in the mid-1980s and, from 22 yards away, what you got was a sublime tutorial in batsmanship. Stance, grip, footwork, balance and stroke selection, judging singles and twos, running between wickets — he was perfection personified.Interestingly, in the nets, Sunny could be a terrible batsman, often the worst amongst us. Journalists watching us at nets would write him off based on this, and be shocked when he came up with a brilliant knock in the match. He was not playing the fool during nets though. He used to draw up an agenda to work on some aspect of his batting, and once he was done, he would enjoy himself for the remaining time. Added to all these attributes was physical courage. Fast bowling is a threat at all times, more so when you are opening the innings against the West Indies in the 1970s and 1980s. The mere thought of facing Andy Roberts, Michael Holding, Joel Garner and Malcolm Marshall would give batsmen nightmares and worse. (I know of a few whose bowel movements would go haywire, or who would sustain mysterious injuries on the eve of a match!) Sunny never flinched. Not against the battery of great West Indies fast bowlers, not against Imran, Sarfraz, Botham, Bob Willis, Richard Hadlee, Dennis Lillee, Leonard Pascoe, not any bowler. No other batsman in the history of the game perhaps has played so many exceptional fast bowlers with such a high degree of success. medium nocaption85555970 medium nocaption85556686Supreme technical excellence was a big factor in this, but absence of fear, I believe, was equally important. I remember batting with Sunny at Bourda (Guyana) in 1983, when a snorter from Macko reared up and crashed into his forehead (he was not wearing a helmet). Such was the impact of the blow that the ball rolled back to Macko in his follow-through. I was shaken and so too was Macko, though he tried to appear casual. But Sunny was genuinely unfazed even though he must have been in pain. He waved away my concern, settled into his stance, cover drove the next ball for four, and went on to make a superb century.As is well known, he once batted left-handed against Karnataka in the Ranji Trophy semi-final in 1982. Some people thought he was taunting the rivals and gave him flak for it. But what Sunny wanted to do was nullify the threat from Raghuram Bhat on a turning pitch. He batted for almost two hours as a left-hander! Likewise, people were mistaken in believing that he didn’t wear a helmet because of bravado. Actually, he just felt uncomfortable in one, but ask him today, and he’ll say that he was wrong in taking such a big risk, even though he did all right! R Ashwin: All-new AshtronautMy term of endearment for him is ‘Ashtronaut’. Talk to him for just a few minutes, and you’ll realise his wavelength is different. It’s always broadband! He’s a qualified engineer with an inquiring bent of mind, and he’s always working on some new theory to get batsmen out or to score runs. He can spend hours — days — weeks working on his skills and game plans. This is his strength, but sometimes also his weakness, especially when it comes to batting. A strong grounding in technique and the capacity to concentrate for long periods of time are good enough to score runs consistently without trying to do something special every time.Ashwin in Australia in 2020-21 was very different from the Ashwin in Australia in 2018. This was evident from the way the ball came out of his hand, the angles he used for flight and deception in the air, and the lengths he landed to put batsmen like Steve Smith to serious test. He used the 2020 lockdown period to enormous advantage, drawing on memories of 2018 and working hard in his daily drill to find the right length for Australian pitches. Without the burden of playing competitive cricket, there was time to hone his skills and do ample homework for the challenges he would face Down Under. medium nocaption85556053 medium nocaption85556699It couldn’t have been easy in the middle of a pandemic. Rather than proving his critics wrong, I think it was the desire to prove something to himself that kept him going in this tough phase. There was a discernible change in his bowling approach. The front foot stride was shorter and the transfer of weight far better. This allowed him more scope to get drift, a crucial weapon when there is not much turn in the pitch.Ashwin was also mentally tougher than before. He’d worked on plans for the top-order batsmen which he shared with the team management before the tour began and kept developing as the tour wore on. It was a roller-coaster series, and I saw him become more competitive, working even more intensely on control and tactics. It made an enormous difference in the series. To outbowl Nathan Lyon on Australian pitches was a great achievement, and reconfigured the pecking order among spinners. Ashwin is a thinking cricketer, always looking to improve. If he continues in this fashion, I am confident he will top the magnificent milestone of 500 Test sticks.Virat Kohli: The SeekerWhat makes Virat tick is his unmatched work ethic. In the four decades I’ve been around, I haven’t seen any Indian player work so hard towards excellence. His training and diet regimens have brought a paradigm change in the Indian context. But that is only one part of what makes an outstanding player. Equally important has been his dedication and diligence in constantly trying to improve. In the nets, Virat will spend hours working on minor changes in stance, or the extent of his backlift, when preparing against a team, or even a particular bowler. He does this assiduously for he not only wants to be the best in his own team, but the best against the world’s best. medium nocaption85556198 medium nocaption85556710His desire to compete is so intense as to be an obsession. From the outside, some mistake Virat’s passion for showmanship, but this is far from the truth. Virat is consistently striving to give himself that extra edge, which in turn can give the team some advantage in the contest. In a way, he’s restless — a seeker who is always looking to do new things. Some work, some don’t. He takes his learnings and moves on. He thrives on adrenaline and is fired up all time, which some see as effrontery to cricket’s etiquette, but he is what he is. Importantly, he never lets his natural aggression conflict with his professional instinct. This makes him an even tougher opponent on the field.Edited excerpts from Stargazing by Ravi Shastri (with Ayaz Memon) with permission from HarperCollins IndiaUntitled Carousel 85479600