Oh dear,
Vijay Shankar had a poor IPL. So poor, he went largely unnoticed. He hardly
batted, he bowled even less. That he played as many as 15 games is an anomaly.
Just as
Suresh Raina often appears to be India’s most enthusiastic player ever, Shankar
could pass off as its least. He doesn’t pat players on their backside. What, he
barely pats anyone. In return, it doesn’t appear as if anyone pats him. He
seems far away, patrolling some boundary on a far off frontier, all by himself
and his cutting chai. But if there’s an intruder, his eyes will shoot up from
that chai and he will chase him down to the ends of the earth. Much like balls
on the boundary. From his stupor, he instantly charges, chasing balls, much
like cats chase rats.
They will
say, if they haven’t already, that Vijay Shankar is an honest cricketer. That
he is a trier. He gives it his all. That means little.
They said Vijay
Shankar should never have been playing this World Cup. Not after the IPL he
had.
Just as the
IPL has created a supply chain of young, Indian cricketers, and forced us to
take notice; it has forced us to scramble formats. Before the IPL, Virat Kohli
commented that performance in the league will not impact World Cup selection.
Vijay
Shankar’s name was in the World Cup squad. Nothing he did or didn’t do in the
league altered that.
However,
his name was not in the starting XI in India’s first match. Runs for KL Rahul
in a warmup only added to his reputation. He slid in at number four, the
position with a bamboo door.
But after
Shikhar Dhawan’s injury, someone patted Shankar on the shoulder and said,
“you’re playing tomorrow as a specialist fielder”. Shankar was drafted. Not as
a player that India wanted but one they needed. He would be called upon much as
one Subramaniam Badrinath was by CSK – if an opener and Raina fell early. The
No. 4 batsman when the going wasn’t so good. Otherwise, you’re good to go when
everyone else is gone. That could be as low as No. 6 or 7.
Against
Pakistan, Hardik Pandya got groovy at four. Dhoni at five. Surprise, surprise,
Vijay Shankar at six.
Vijay
Shankar’s beard is nothing like that of his teammates. His beard is more second
year engineering than man in blue. On some days, Shankar leaves the hostel and
shines.
Before that
gloomy day in June at Old Trafford, Vijay Shankar had never played Pakistan
before. But out of nowhere, the sun snuck through and so did he.
Bhuvneshwar
Kumar walked off with more intent than Vijay Shankar walked on to finish that
hamstrung over. What is intent? Shankar seemed secure to finish that fifth
over. He didn’t have to worry whether his first ball should be quicker or
slower, his speeds don’t have that variation. It would be either in the high
120s or the low 130s. It wouldn’t have the zip or bounce of Bumrah nor the
exacting lines of Bhuvi.
Before
Shankar was called to bowl those two deliveries, Pakistan was 13/0 off 4.3
overs. Two quicks at the top of their mental game were setting it up, ball
after ball, more often than not, outside off.
Little did
they know they were setting it up for Vijay Shankar’s first ball. It didn’t go
past Imam-ul-Haq’s bat. It didn’t go past Imam-ul-Haq’s pads. It was fuller,
possibly slower than anything bowled so far.
Haq went
one way, the ball the other. Shankar’s arms appealed in a near perfect Y. Had
it not been given, would it have been reviewed? Was it pitching outside leg?
Was it hitting?
It didn’t
matter. Pakistan did not review. It pitched in line and was hitting leg. Vijay
Shankar had just taken his first wicket in a World Cup, his third in an ODI, in
the fifth over versus Pakistan.
Virat Kohli
could not believe it. In what will go down as the non-cricketing moment of the
match, Kohli’s cracked up reaction summed it all up. in words, possibly – “ISNE...Isne wicket lee...isne"
(THIS…this has taken a wicket…this!”
Before Shankar, Kedar Jadhav’s
wickets would evoke such hilarity.
Close to thirty overs later,
Shankar took Pakistan’s sixth and last wicket – knocking over their captain,
Sarfaraz Ahmed. In what could well be his last game against India.
Will Shankar play Pakistan again?
Shankar only made his ODI debut in January this year. More in reaction to the
gap left by Hardik Pandya’s misdemeanours.
In 10 matches so far, he’s batted
six times. Twice each at five, six and seven.
India is yet to lose a match where
Shankar has not been called on to bat. When he bats, and is dismissed, there’s
a Greek tragedy about his walk back.
Who more than Shankar would know,
the opportunities coming his way will be no more than a trickle. What he makes
of them will either define him as that first wicket guy against Pakistan or
India’s wild card that came off at the World Cup.
Either way, Vijay Shankar has just
the right lack of pace and aggression to be Venkatesh Prasad's true successor. Or
Madan Lal’s? Or Roger Binny’s?
All had their World Cup moments
and Shankar just had his. You know. You saw. As did that guy in his 3D glasses.
First published here
1 comment:
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