Ravishankar Jayadritha Shastri

Ravishankar Jayadritha Shastri (born 1962-05-27 in Mumbai (Bombay), India ) is a former Indian cricketer.

Shastri was an all-rounder who batted right-handed and bowled left arm spin for India. He made his debut for India at the age of 18 and played on for twelve years. He started his career purely as a bowler but gradually became more of a batsman who could bowl.

The highest point in his career was when he was elected the Champion of Champions in the World Championship of Cricket in Australia in 1985. In the same season he equalled Garry Sobers’s record of hitting six sixes in an over in first class cricket. He was considered captaincy material, but his image outside cricket , injuries and losses of form at inopportune times meant that he captained India in only one Test.

In domestic cricket, he played for Bombay and lead them to the Ranji Trophy title in his last year. He also played four seasons of county cricket for Glamorgan.

As a batsman, Shastri was more effective than handsome. He was essentially a defensive batsman – with the flick off the pads being his trademark shot – but could score very fast at times. Being 6’ 3” tall and having an upright stance, he employed the drive sparsely against the faster bowlers. But against spinners when in mood, he could use the lofted shots very effectively. He frequently opened the innings and batted in the middle order.

A recurring knee injury put an early end to his career at the age of 31. He is now a noted TV cricket commentator.

Early Days

Shastri’s family orginally came from Mangalore in Karnataka but he was born and brought up in Mumbai[2], then Bombay. He started playing cricket early, but it was only when he entered the teenage that he took it up seriously. His father Jayadritha Shastri was a doctor and the family was academically inclined. Shastri reached the final of the 1974 inter-school Giles Shield with the Don Bosco school in Matunga, Mumbai, losing to St Mary’s, who feature two future Ranji players, Shishir Hattangadi and Jignesh Sanghani. The next year, under Shastri’s captaincy, Don Bosco won the Giles Shield. Shastri set a record for the highest score in the final which stood for 27 years. This experience led him to take a serious interest in cricket.

In 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 RA Podar college, which Shastri later joined for a course in Commerce, was a major supplier of Bombay’s cricketing talent. There he had Vasant Amladi and later VS “Marshall” Patil to coach him. Patil played a leading role in honing his skills. Shastri also attended a national level coaching camp conducted by Hemu Adhikari. In his last year at the junior college, he was selected to represent Bombay in Ranji trophy. He was 17 years and 292 days when he made his first class debut.

His only notable achievement in his first two seasons was a 6 for 61 that 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 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 Geoff Howarth. In the second innings, he took 3 wickets in four balls 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. Shastri’s 15 wickets in the series was the best for either side.

International Cricket

Within eighteen months of his Test debut, he had moved up from No. 10 in the batting order to being an opener. 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 1 to 10. By his own admission, he ignored his bowling in favour of the batting, as reflected in his performances. Still, his 9 for 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 lead to Shastri being made to open at Oval against England in 1982. He distinguished himself by scoring 66. An injury in the webbing of the hand put him out of four of the Tests in Pakistan. Forced to open in the final Test at Karachi, against the bowling of Imran Khan at his best, Shastri scored his first Test hundred. He later made another hundred against West Indies in Antigua. Indian Cricket 1983 was impressed enough to suggest that he could become the best batsman in the Indian team in a few years.

Shastri was not selected for most of the important matches in the 1983 World Cup. When the West Indies fast bowlers destroyed India in the series later that year, he again distinguished himself with his bold efforts.

The Glorious Winter

In October 1984, India toured Pakistan for the third time in six years. The Lahore Test saw India collapse to 156 against Pakistan’s 428, and follow on. India went into the last day trailing by 92 with six wickets in hand but were saved by a fifth wicket stand of 126 between Shastri and Mohinder Amarnath. Shastri scored 71 while Amarnath who was making yet another of his comebacks, 101*. Shastri had even more success in the next Test at Faisalabad where he scored 139 and shared a stand of 200 with Sandip Patil. The last Test and the remainder of the tour was cancelled because of the assassination of Indira Gandhi.

There were already signals that Shastri was being groomed as a future captain. Sunil Gavaskar was coming to the end of his career and Kapil Dev was expected to succeed him. Shastri appeared to be the next in line. He lead the Young India side to Zimbabwe in early 1984. Against the touring English side in November, he lead the India Under-25 to an innings win. This was the first defeat of England in a tour match in India for fifty years. The Under-25 match was also significant to Indian cricket in that it saw the emergence of two bright young cricketers, one whose career sadly faded too fast, and the comeback of a third. Mohammad Azharuddin scored 151 and Krish Srikkanth 92 in the U-25’s only innings while Laxman Sivaramakrishnan’s googlies and dipping fulltosses fetched him 4 for 27 in the England second innings.

About this time, Shastri also began to open the innings regularly in one days, and with conspicous success. He scored 102 against Australians in October – India’s second hundred in ODIs – and made the same score against England at Cuttack in December. Shastri had stood in for Gavaskar and opened with Srikkanth in two matches of the 1983 World Cup. The third time that they opened, they set a world record of 188 for the first wicket. Later this season, this partnership was to form the foundation for the Indian triumph in the WCC in Australia.

Shastri’s success continued in the test matches against England. In the Bombay Test his 235 run stand with Syed Kirmani paved the way for an Indian win. It is still the national record for the seventh wicket. Shastri’s 142 improved upon the 139 at Faisalabad as his highest score.

The hundred in the third Test at Calcutta was hardly a glorious affair. It began on the first evening and continued through the rain interrupted second day. The hundred came up in 422 minutes just before close on the third day. His innings finally ended on fourth day at 111 scored in 357 balls and 455 minutes. Azharuddin’s 110 in 443 minutes at the other end was enjoyable only in comparison. The two young men added 214 for the fifth wicket, yet another Indian record. When India started the second innings late in the final day, Shastri was sent in to open. He scored 7 runs in over an hour to further doom the already dull Test match, but in doing so became one of the few batsmen to bat on all five days of a Test.

The Jekyll and Hyde nature of Shastri was on display one week later when Bombay played Baroda in a West Zone Ranji match. The first innings of the teams virtually cancelled out each other and it looked a draw for all practical purposes when Shastri went in after lunch on the final day. His first hundred came up in 72 minutes and 80 balls and included nine fours and four sixes. The second took just 41 minutes and 43 balls. The 113 minute double hundred is the fastest in first class history. Gilbert Jessop during the course of 286 for Gloucestershire against Sussex in 1903 and Clive Lloyd in his 201* for West Indians against Glamorgan in 1976 had reached their double hundreds in 120 minutes. Shastri’s 200* came in 123 balls and 113 minutes and included 13 fours and 13 sixes. Six of the sixes came off a single over of the left arm spinner Tilak Raj. In terms of the number of sixes, it bettered the 58 year old Indian record of CK Nayudu who had struck 11 sixes against a touring MCC team at Bombay Gymkhana in 1926/7. Shastri’s unfinished sixth wicket stand of 204* with Ghulam Parkar took only 83 minutes, Parkar contributed 33 of those runs. Baroda made a contribution of their own by dropping him four times. Ironically, the delayed declaration probably costed Bombay the match, as Baroda went for quick runs in search of bonus points and ended up with 81 for 7 in the second innings. Shastri took two wickets in four overs.

The ‘Champion of Champions’

Excepting a few series in Pakistan and the 1983 World Cup final, the World Championship of Cricket in Australia was the first time cricket matches from abroad were shown live in India. While the World Cup was a glorious fluke, the WCC saw India win every match convincingly. The WCC was conceived as a celebration of the 150th year of the formation of Victoria, but the finalists turned out to be India and Pakistan.

Shastri had a slow start to the tournament but finished with fifties in the last three matches. Srikkanth too scored three fifties and India posted century opening stands against Australia and in the final. India went in with two spinners for every match. It helped that all the matches were played at Melbourne and Sydney which have turning tracks and long boundaries. Sivaramakrishnan and Shastri claimed 18 wickets between them in five matches.

For his 182 runs and 8 wickets, Shastri was chosen as the man of the series which in this particular tournament was called ‘The Champion of Champions’. He won an Audi-100 car for his efforts. By the special order of Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, Indian customs waived the heavy duty its import would have normally entailed.

Two weeks later India won the Rothman’s cup in Sharjah beating Pakistan and Australia. The victory against Pakistan was particularly memorable because India defended a total of only 125. Shastri and Siva continued their successful partnership with the ball. It was for this tournament that Shastri served as the Indian vice captain for the first time. Gavaskar had announced his decision to resign his captaincy at the end of the WCC, even before the tournament began. Before the final, Ian Chappell suggested that for the good of Indian cricket, Gavaskar should continue as the captain till Shastri could take over from him[11].

The final of the Ranji trophy between Bombay and Delhi began two days after the end of the Sharjah tournament. Gavaskar and Shastri returned via Bahrain, only reaching India the morning of the match. Dilip Vengsarkar who had arrived a day earlier withdrew from the match with a groin injury, which made it imperative that Gavaskar and Shastri should play.

The Ranji final

The Ranji final turned out to be one of the finest matches in Indian domestic cricket history. A sleepy Gavaskar won the toss and batted. He could hardly close his eyes before Bombay was 3 down for 42. He scored his 20th and last hundred in Ranji trophy and took Bombay to 333. Shastri made 29 before he was bowled attempting to cut an arm-ball. Delhi was in early trouble before they were rescued by Chetan Chauhan, batting in his last first class match and with a fractured finger. Ajay Sharma, in his first season, scored a hundred and took Delhi into the lead with nine wickets down.

The rules of the competition specified that in the event of a draw, the team with the first innings lead would be declared the winners. With two days and 100 minutes left, Bombay went for quick runs. A crowd of about 46,000 turned up for match on the fourth day and the organizers ran out of tickets. Shastri top scored with 76 as Bombay set Delhi 300 to win in a day and ninty minutes.

Except for the odd delivery, the ball spun slowly and afforded enough time for the batsmen to play their strokes. Early on the final day, Delhi reached 95 for no loss and the collapsed before Shastri. His first wicket was Chauhan who was declared out caught behind when a ball spun across the face of the bat without touching it. The match changed dramatically and the batsmen lost their head. Gursharan Singh was lbw playing no stroke, Kirti Azad played on, Surinder Khanna was stumped after a few slogs. Shastri took 8 for 91. Bombay won by 90 runs. In the 50th year of Ranji trophy, it was their 30th title.

It is doubtful whether, Sachin Tendulkar apart, any Indian cricketer has had a season of such unadulterated success. Shastri was 23, at the peak of his career, considered a future captain and about the most eligible bachelor in the country.

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. The latter series saw Dilip Vengsarkar hit a purple patch which continued for two years. After the tour of Australia in 1985-86, Shastri 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. Shastri’s 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, 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 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 nervous nineties. Yet he hit six sixes, four off Matthews and one each off Ray Bright and Bruce Reid, three of which came after he completed his hundred. The huge six off 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 Shastri was outshone by Vengsarkar who scored 164* in the same innings. They added a record 298* for the sixth wicket. Shastri finished the series with 231 runs for once out and at the time his average was the second highest ever for a test series.

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. Shastri 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, the first 40 coming off 19 balls with four sixes.

In 1987, Glamorgan contracted Shastri to play for them. He also represented MCC against Rest of the World in the MCC bicentennial match at Lord’s. He continued at Glamorgan till 1991. In the same year, 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.