'He disobeyed and...': R Sridhar reveals incident when Shardul Thakur lied to Ravi Shastri

R Sridhar recalled one incident during the Border-Gavaskar trophy in Sydney when pacer Shardul Thakur miscommunicated an order from coach Ravi Shastri to Hanuma Vihari and Ravichandran Ashwin who was batting at the crease at that time. Hanuma Vihari had a hamstring pull and was not at his physical best against the Australian bowlers. India went to pull off a draw with some heroic batting from the duo against Australia.

R Sridhar revealed when Shardul Thakur miscommunicated Ravi Shastri's message

Former Indian fielding coach R Sridhar narrated an instance in his book ‘Coaching Beyond: My Days with the Indian Cricket Team’ when Ravi Shastri was miffed with both Hanuma Vihari and R Ashwin as an unnecessary single had put the game in danger. The initial plan was that Vihari would take on the pacers due to his injury while Ashwin would be facing the spinners.

Sridhar narrated the incident. “Vihari and Ashwin came in at tea, and while we converged to congratulate and encourage them, a tactical call was also made. Vihari had pulled his hamstring and was not able to play Lyon convincingly because his movements were restricted. He couldn’t put in the good, long stride. Ashwin, meanwhile, was being subjected to a bouncer barrage from the quicks. So, it was decided that Ashwin, at home against Lyon, would take on the off-spinner and Vihari would negotiate the three-pronged pace attack.

“After having stuck to their respective ends of the bargain, for some strange reason, they took a single, which exposed Vihari to Lyon and Ashwin to the fast men. A couple of singles later, the situation was unaltered and Ravi was starting to lose his shirt. He summoned substitute Shardul Thakur and told him, ‘Listen to me very carefully, and repeat this to them: No matter what happens, Vihari will handle the fast bowlers, Ashwin will play Lyon. No singles, no change of ends, period. Got it?’Shardul smiled coyly and said, ‘Yes, sir’, and charged to the middle with a bottle of water for Ashwin."

Shardul was sent in during the break and on his return to the pavilion he was quizzed by the coach on whether he passed his message to the batting pair. ‘Did you pass on my message?’

Shardul replied, ‘Yes, sir, of course."

But it was later found that Shardul had not delivered the message entirely as he constructed his own instructions. “It was only much, much later, after we had pulled the fat out of the fire and escaped with one of the greatest draws, that the real story came out. It seems when Shardul went in, Ashwin asked him what was being said in the dressing room.

On being asked by Ashwin Shardul insisted, ‘They are saying many things, but you guys don’t worry. You are batting well, just continue doing the same things’. He didn’t pass on Ravi’s message; instead, he told the batters exactly what they wanted to hear at that time. Perhaps he sized up that passing on the instructions, however steeped in logic they might be, could disrupt the flow of the batters and the zone they were in, so he passed on a message he thought was the best under the circumstances. Hats off to him! In a direct way, that is linked to the kind of empowerment we gave the players, and which they learnt to use judiciously."