Ravi Shastri - The Indian Summer

The Indian Summer

Since 1985, Shastri's career had been in steady decline but he was able to turn it around in 1990. The pitches in England were good for batting and he scored two hundreds in the three Tests. He was now back as an opener. While India faced a huge England score at Lord's, he scored an exact hundred. It wasn't a faultless innings – too often he played and missed and most of the runs came with his usual flicks and nudges. He went to his hundred hitting the English spinner Eddie Hemmings for two fours and a six in an over, and departed immediately attempting another big hit.

He topped this with 187 at the Oval. Journalist and commentator Harsha Bhogle's description of this innings holds true for many of Shastri's major efforts :

Watching Shastri bat is like admiring the Qutub Minar; tall, timeless, solid. You admire it for the virtues, not for its style. For nine hours and 21 minutes, he chiselled away the England attack and the sculpture that he left behind represented perseverance and craft. There was the usual stoic, expressionless face under the helmet, but you could see the determination in his eyes as he planted himself at the wicket, struck root and bore fruit.

Only occasionally, the bat wavered in its resolve but the mind put it on the right path again, almost in admonishment, and the bat grew broader and straighter ... He may never be a Gavaskar, but he at least represents the great man's virtues, even if by proxy. It would be a relief too, to know that he will never throw away his wicket for nobody guards his crease more fiercely.

Following the innings at Oval, Shastri scored his career best score of 217 in the Irani trophy in the opening match of the Indian season and a top score of 88 on a very bad wicket in the Chandigarh Test against Sri Lanka. He carried his bat for 101* against the same opponents in a one day match a week later, reaching the hundred with a two off the last ball. Next year in South Africa's first–ever ODI series on their return to international cricket, he scored 109 at Delhi, his fourth and last one day hundred. A series of abandoned tours meant India played few matches at home at this time.

At the end of 1991, India travelled to Australia for a five Test series, to be followed by the World Cup. Channel 9 dubbed it the Indian Summer. The series was a disaster for India – they lost four of the Tests – and was rife with umpiring controversies. But it also saw the final flourishes in the careers of Shastri and Kapil Dev.

Shastri took 5 wickets for 15 runs against Australia in an early match in the World Series Cup. It was then the best bowling figures by an Indian in ODIs. Most of the wickets were gratuitously earned, though – three batsmen were caught on the legside boundary and another stumped. In the third Test at Sydney, he scored his only double hundred in Test cricket, the first by an Indian against Australia. He was dropped in the sixties by the Australian leg–spinner Shane Warne, who was making his debut, off his own bowling. Amidst frequent interruptions by rain, he completed his hundred early on the fourth day and a six off Warne brought up the 150. He finally fell to a tired shot at Warne after nine and a half hours, scoring 206 with 17 fours and the two sixes, thus becoming Warne's first Test wicket.

It was also during this innings that the knee injury that would soon end his career appeared for the first time. India had gone into the match with four pace bowlers and no regular spinners. Shastri was little more than a part–time bowler by this time. By the final day, pitch started taking spin. Shastri took four wickets in the second innings and Australia just about beat the clock to draw the match. India could well have won the match with another spinner.