Ravi Shastri - The Slow Descent

The Slow Descent

Shastri continued as vice captain to Kapil Dev in the 1985–86 season. This season and the England tour of 1986 were ordinary ones for him. After the tour of Australia in 1985–86, he also began to decline as a bowler. Bombay lost to Haryana in the semifinal of the Ranji trophy but West Zone won the Duleep Trophy. His major contribution was as a bowler in the semifinal against North Zone on a flat wicket at Trivandrum. Like in the Ranji final, North looked the likely winner going into the last day, before he took 8 for 145.

Australia, Sri Lanka and Pakistan toured India in 1986–87. Shastri played a crucial role in the Tied Test at Madras against Australia, scoring 62 and 48*. His second innings runs came in 36 balls. When Indian middle order collapsed and India fell behind the run rate, his two sixes in quick succession off off–spinner Greg Matthews came in handy. In the final Test at Bombay he scored 121*. As was becoming increasingly common, it was played in first and fourth gear. He hung around for around 30 minutes for the last run for his fifty and twice as long in the nineties. Yet he hit six sixes, three of which came after he completed his hundred. The huge six off left arm fast bowler Bruce Reid – a cross batted heave that went over longon – was particularly memorable. Six sixes in an innings was an Indian record at the time. But he was outshone by Dilip Vengsarkar who scored 164* in the same innings. They added a record 298* for the sixth wicket.

He scored hundreds in the quarter final and semifinal of the Duleep trophy, but West Zone lost to South on first innings lead in the latter match. Shastri's only other score over fifty in the season was a particularly dull 125 against Pakistan in the Jaipur Test. He did well enough to be the man of the one day series. In the first one day match against Pakistan he captained India for the first time, scoring 50 and taking three wickets. He took four wickets at Calcutta and 69* at Hyderabad in two thrilling finishes. Later at Nagpur with India facing a big target, he scored 52 in 40 balls.

In early 1987, he presented a 15 minute coaching series which went by the name 'That's Cricket'. This was aired on the national channel Doordarshan on Sunday mornings. There were even rumours of an involvement with actress Amrita Singh.