Ravi Shastri

Ravishankar ("Ravi") Jayadritha Shastri (born 1962-05-27 in Mumbai (Bombay), India) is a former Indian cricketer. 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 12 years. He started his career purely as a bowler but gradually became more of a batsman who could bowl.

International cricket

Within eighteen months of his Test debut, he 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,{{ref|Wisden82}} 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{{ref|WoC}}, 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.

Related Topics:
Batting order - Wisden - Fielding - Irani Trophy

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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 1983 was impressed enough to suggest that, given time, he could become the one of the best batsmen in the Indian team{{ref|IC83}}.

Related Topics:
Pranab Roy - Ghulam Parkar - The Oval - Runs - Webbing - Karachi - Imran Khan - West Indies - Antigua - Indian Cricket 1983

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Shastri was not selected to play in most of the important matches in the 1983 World Cup. In the series against the West Indies later that year, he again distinguished himself with his bold effort in batting against the domineering West Indian pace bowlers.

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