IN SEARCH OF THE SAVIOUR

It's a fantastic feeling.

One day in the later part of 1990s, when I first saw Rahul Dravid, batting in a Test match in South Africa, I saw him defending the express bowling from Donald and Co. For me, in some instances it looked like a soldier fighting the bullets and when he got out finally it looked like as if the war is over and the opposition had won it. During the power-cut break, I went into our ‘vast’ playing area of around 27 yards length and 15 yards width, with an intention of taking up that responsibility of ‘saving the nation’ from the ruins and winning the battle. With the new bat in my hand, that my Dad had gifted that summer, I covered my head with a white cotton towel covering the ears and tied it under the chin to save myself from the ‘bouncers’ and covered it with a sky blue cap on which  it was written ‘INDIA’. I knew what I was going to score and what I would do at the end of the milestone with that cap. It’s a fantastic feeling, honestly.

That afternoon, I played a magnificent innings, which Ravi Shastri had called, ‘innings of a life’ when wickets were tumbling at the other end. I contributed more than 150 in that double hundred partnership with Nayan Mongia by around 4 PM. It was a difficult job to see my favorite stars losing their wickets on the other side while I was trying to do something to hang-in there and score runs. It was even more difficult because, batting and commentating simultaneously are two different jobs and I thought I was the only one capable of doing that effectively till Shane Warne bowled McCullum round his legs in a recent T20 match in Australia. But, somehow, I did it, I did it so perfectly in that tour that even during post match presentations I didn’t have a problem of answering my own questions like, what I amount of hard-work I had put in and how I felt when the batting on the other side was collapsing. But, one thing I couldn’t do on that tour was taking enough wickets to win all the test matches. All-rounders in cricket are not made in a single series, of course. 

Life after that wasn’t easy, I played a lot of test matches for India in the next 5-6 years, sometimes early mornings, and sometimes late nights, sometimes to take a time-out from my 10^th exams preparation, sometimes to prepare for the next gully cricket match held in our building. Most international crickets come back and play lower standard matches for practice. I did it the other way around. I played in Australia in 99-00 series, scored heavily and took enough wickets to win India’s first series in Australia. I went to England, played at Lord’s and brought so many laurels, had an altercation with Flintoff at Leeds and hit all the six balls to six different sides of the park. Yeah, I had a deja-vu feeling when Yuvi did the same in 2007. 

These guys kept winning and I had to retire.

Some years later, I retired from all forms of cricket not because, I was tired but, there were enough players in the team who could do that and I felt happy that I wasn’t needed. I am glad that I exited in glory.

When Rahul Dravid was fighting his life-saving war against English pacers again in his life, he was fighting all alone. If only I could announce my re-entry into cricket. For the first time I rued myself for having not born in Pakistan. What a privilege they have.

Dravid: "I know buddy how much it hurts when you dying to win and your team doesn't back you up"

When Virat Kohli was fighting against the Australian tide in Perth, I knew I would have helped him not only complete his century but we would have made Australia look like Australia in India. I know, he need not had to slog in Adelaide after his century to score quickly nor he had to throw away his wicket to save a night watchman. To be frank with you, there wouldn’t have been a night-watchman requirement there in the first place.

I was told during my formative years of what I call now ‘iCricket’ that when ever there is a deep crisis and the situation couldn’t go any more worse, a small hope is created by the God. Those small hopes can create big wonders and they are called ‘Miracles’. That was how I bailed out the crisis of Indian Cricket then and since the situation cannot get any worser, I guess, The Miracle is just around the corner.