Friday, October 3, 2014

Ravi Shastri

Ravi shastri the former indian captain




Ravi Shastri


Ravishankar Jayadritha Shastri is a former Indian cricketer and captain, who presently the Director of Cricket for the Indian cricket team. The highlight of his career was when he was elected Champion of Champions in the World Championship of Cricket in Australia in 1985. In the same season, he equalled West Indian Garry Sobers's record of hitting six sixes in an over in first class cricket. He was regarded as a potential captain, but his image outside cricket, injuries and tendency to lose form at crucial times meant that he captained India in only one Test match.
 He was an all–rounder who batted right-handed and bowled left arm spin. His international career started when he was 18 years old and lasted for 12 years. He started his career purely as a bowler but gradually became more of a batsman who could bowl. Shastri's family originally came from Mangalore in Karnataka but he was born and brought up in Bombay. In domestic cricket, he played for Bombay and led them to the Ranji Trophy title in his final year of playing. He also played four seasons of county cricket for Glamorgan. He was forced to retire aged 31 due to a recurring knee injury. He now does commentary on behalf of BCCI in the matches that India plays. As a batsman, he was essentially defensive with his trademark "chapati shot" (a flick off the pads), but he could raise his strike rate when required. Due to his above-average height (he stood 6' 3" tall) and an upright stance, he had a limited number of shots against fast bowling, but was able to put the lofted shot to good use against spin bowling. Shastri played either as an opening batsman or in the middle order.
This family has been reported to have had its ancestral temple, the Shri Vishnumurti Temple in the village Karvalu, a small village in the Yarlapadi in Karkala taluk. He was born and brought up in Bombay. His father, M. Jayadratha Shastri, was a medical doctor; whose father was Dr M C Shastri, a well-known Ayurvedic physician of Mangalore. This family is reportedly known as a family of physicians, and had a strong academic tradition. His mother, Prof. Laksmi Shashtri was a professor in National college, Bandra. Shastri studied at Don Bosco High School, Matunga.It was only as a teenager that he took to cricket seriously. Shastri, playing for Don Bosco (Matunga), reached the final of the 1976 inter–school Giles Shield, losing to St Mary's, whose lineup included two future Ranji players, Shishir Hattangadi and Jignesh Sanghani. The next year, under Shastri's captaincy, Don Bosco won the Giles Shield in 1977, the first time in the history of this school. At school, his coach was BD Desai, once a Tatas and Dadar Union player. While Don Bosco was not traditionally a major force in schools cricket, the R.A. Podar College, where Shastri later studied commerce, produced many good cricketers. Vasant Amladi and, in particular, VS "Marshall" Patil, were integral figures in Shastri's development as a cricketer. In his last year at the junior college, he was selected to represent Bombay in the Ranji trophy. At 17 years and 292 days, he was then the youngest cricketer to play for Bombay.
An Indian under–19 team was scheduled to tour Pakistan in 1980–81. Shastri was included in the coaching camp at the last minute by the National Coach Hemu Adhikari. Shastri captained one of the two teams in a trial game and was then asked to lead the Indian Under-19 team. The tour, however, was cancelled. The team later went to Sri Lanka, but the games were frequently interrupted by rain.
His only notable achievement in his first two Ranji seasons were bowling figures of 6-61, which he took against Delhi in the 1979–80 Ranji final that Bombay lost. While he was playing against Uttar Pradesh at Kanpur in the next season, he was called up to the squad touring New Zealand to stand in for the injured left arm spinner Dilip Doshi. Shastri arrived in Wellington the night before the first Test. His first over in Test cricket was a maiden to the New Zealand captain Geoff Howarth. In the second innings, he took 3 wickets in four balls, all to catches by Dilip Vengsarkar, to bring a quick close to the New Zealand innings. In the third Test, his seven wickets won him the man of the match award, while his 15 wickets in the series were the highest for either side.

International cricket

Within eighteen months of his Test debut, Shastri had moved up from tenth position in the batting order to being an opening batsman. "His calm, sensible batting lower in the order", wrote Wisden, commenting on his first series, "raised promise of his developing into a useful all–rounder, and his fielding too was an asset". By the end of his career, he had batted in every position from one to ten. By his own admission, he ignored his bowling in favour of his batting. This was reflected in his performances. However, his figures of 9-101 in the season–opening 1981 Irani Trophy stood as a tournament record for nearly twenty years.
It was the failure of the regular openers Pranab Roy and Ghulam Parkar that led to Shastri being made to open at the Oval against England in 1982. He distinguished himself by scoring 66 runs in that match. An injury in the webbing of his hand ruled him out of four of the Tests to be played in Pakistan. Forced again to open in the final Test at Karachi, against the fast bowling of Imran Khan (then at the peak of his career), he scored his first Test hundred. He later made another hundred against the West Indies in Antigua. Indian Cricket was impressed enough to suggest that, given time, he could become one of the best batsmen in the Indian team.

No comments:

Post a Comment