'Subramaniam Badrinath scored a hundred after being on drips' - L Balaji lauds former CSK batsman's commitment

Former Indian pacer Lakshmipathy Balaji shared an incident when Subramaniam Badrinath came back to the ground after being on drips in the hospital to slam a century. He labelled the former CSK batsman as the greatest example of how a player can evolve over time.

Balaji spoke about the competitive nature and the evolution of Subramaniam Badrinath as a batsman while interacting with Ravichandran Ashwin as a part of the latter's YouTube show 'Formula for Success'.

The ever-smiling Balaji commended Subramaniam Badrinath's competitive nature while talking about the enormous effort the latter would put to win a game of tennis even now.

"You cannot beat Badri. You have to compete hard. I have played many tennis and golf games with him. He just will not leave. I am talking about now, 6-7 months ago. Not from back then. He will fall down and bruise himself on the tennis court, he will fall all over the place."

"At whatever stage, he will not give anything easy. You have to earn it as an opposition. That is the competitive nature of Badri."

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Lakshmipathy Balaji on Subramaniam Badrinath's evolution as a batsman

Subramaniam Badrinath played many significant knocks for Chennai Super Kings

Balaji mentioned that right from their younger days, everyone used to talk about the time Subramaniam Badrinath used to take to score his runs rather than the prize he attached to his wicket.

The right-arm pacer revealed that the gritty middle-order batsman had scored a century in a session on his Ranji Trophy debut to show the attacking side of his game.

"Another thing about Badri from his early days. We went together for the tour of England. At that every time was a luxury for us including the tour itself. We travelled in a flight for the first time, we saw Coca Cola. At that time, everyone used to talk about Badri's batting. That he takes a lot of time to score runs."

"Badri was technically sound and never gave his wicket away but everyone saw it from the opposite side. But the same Badri showed his other side. During his Ranji Trophy debut, he showed how a century can be scored in one session."

Balaji added that Subramaniam Badrinath had reached a stage where he was literally toying with the opposition attack and would even tell the former that he would score a century in an hour before going in to bat.

"Have you heard somebody casually say that he is going to score a hundred? I saw that in 2005. Different Badris. Different stages showcasing what all he could do. He was toying with the bowlers."

"At one stage, the best spinners were bowling. He had already told me that he is going to score a hundred in an hour and that he is going to hit this bowler for these many runs in this session."

The Chennai Super Kings' bowling coach labelled Subramaniam Badrinath as the greatest example of how a cricketer can transform himself over time, from being a defensive batsman to an attacking one as was evident in the IPL as well.

"He started doing all that. Badri is the greatest example of how people evolve over time. He was able to transform to aggressive. You must have seen him in IPL."

Balaji also narrated an incident when Subramaniam Badrinath came back from the hospital, where he was on drips due to dehydration, to score a match-saving century for Tamil Nadu.

"Completely different role from protecting the team. He scored 250 when Tamil Nadu were 40/5 in Bandra. There was a match when he came after getting a round of drips from Malar Hospital due to dehydration. And the team again collapsed."

"So he came with the drips set-up in an ambulance and played. He removed all that and went in. Again defence and a match-saving hundred. Nobody knows about all this. Badri can do many things. He is the greatest example for everyone across generations."

Subramaniam Badrinath was extremely unfortunate to represent India in only 2 Test matches, in which he scored 63 runs at an average of 21.00. He was also a part of the Indian team for 7 ODIs and a solitary T20I.

One of the stalwarts of Indian domestic cricket Subramaniam Badrinath retires. Born in the wrong era. Could have easily played more than 50 Tests. https://t.co/b9BphqD3Vw

— Narbavi (@Narbavi) August 31, 2018

The technically sound middle-order batsman was an outstanding performer in the domestic circuit. He amassed 10245 runs in 145 first-class matches at an excellent average of 54.49.

Subramaniam Badrinath was also one of the mainstays of the CSK batting lineup between 2008 and 2013. He scored 1441 runs for the Yellow Army at a respectable average of 30.65 and bailed out the team from trouble on numerous occasions.

A mainstay of the @ChennaiIPL batting line-up for a long time, Subramaniam Badrinath relives his CSK debut and the crucial 73-run partnership which helped his team clinch victory against Punjab. In conversation with @akb287. #IPL2020 #cricket https://t.co/1iyGgZVdYJ

— Firstpost Sports (@FirstpostSports) May 13, 2020

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