Five life lessons from the India World Cup squad

#2 Vijay Shankar - Failures lead you to eventual success

Vijay Shankar

It’s the Nidahas Trophy final. India is in need of quick runs. You are playing your first tournament in national colours. It is a tricky run-chase. The crowd is unrelenting as is Mustafizur Rahman. The magnanimity of the occasion gets to you and you end up playing a maiden over.

Dinesh Karthik’s whirlwind innings [29 off eight balls] ultimately sealed the game for the Men in Blue. It sent the team and the crowd into a frenzy, but amidst all the jubilations was a dejected Shankar.

“When everyone was rejoicing after the final, I was feeling very disheartened at how things panned out. It was an opportunity given to me to become a hero. I should have finished the match,” he said.

“My parents and close friends didn’t say anything as they knew what I was going through. But I get these text messages like ‘don’t worry about what’s being said on social media’ when I actually want to move on. They perhaps think that’s the way to show sympathy but it may not work,” the all-rounder told PTI in an interview.

Shankar was trolled by the unrelenting social media, for his innings in the Nidahas Trophy final.

“I need to accept that these are things that can happen when you play for India. The same social media would have gone berserk had I won the match all by myself,” Shankar said in the aftermath of the final.

Playing for India is a dream of every budding cricketer. But in a cricket-mad country where there are numerous contenders for one spot, the opportunities of breaking into the national side are at a premium.

So, when the dream is finally realized, the pressure of the occasion can sometimes hinder you from playing your natural game, which is what happened to Vijay Shankar last year. But, Shankar, unlike most cricketers, did not give up. He went back to the drawing board again and did what every cricketer should do after getting dropped; score truckloads of runs for his state and India A.

While the Indian team was battling it out against Australia in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, Shankar was quietly winning games for India A in New Zealand, while waiting for his next opportunity in International cricket.

When it arrived, the Tamil Nadu all-rounder was more than up for it. The opportunity arrived in the form of a talk show scandal involving Hardik Pandya and KL Rahul. Following a massive furor, Pandya was suspended from the side and Shankar was roped in as his replacement.

Shankar, who had played a substantial role in India A’s triumph over the Kiwis in New Zealand, wasn’t going to let this opportunity slip. The horrors of the Nidahas Trophy final were waiting to be shrugged off, and boy did he do that with aplomb.

Shankar’s redemption came in precarious circumstances; in windy conditions against the best exponent of seam and swing bowling (Trent Boult) and by the time he arrived at the crease his side [at 4-18] was facing another prospect of getting bowled out for a sub-100 total.

The right-hander countered the conditions beautifully and played some delightful strokes during his knock of 46. He may have got out in an unfortunate manner (run-out) but as the innings proved, sometimes it’s not only about the runs but also the manner in which they are scored that leaves a lasting impression. It did leave a lasting impression on Kohli and the selectors.

Shankar‘s innings made the selectors and team-management look-up and take notice of him as a potential candidate for the No.4 spot.

Shankar‘s rise coincided with Ambati Rayudu‘s decline in form and with him offering a three-dimensional role as he did against Australia in Nagpur, his place in the World Cup squad was sealed.

#1 Ambati Rayudu - Sometimes your best is not good enough

Ambati Rayudu

You’ve got to feel for Ambati Rayudu. When the story of Indian cricket is written, Rayudu’s story will always be a tale of promise, temperamental issues, and how his luck and form deserted him at the wrong time.

Earmarked as a prodigious talent back in 2002, Rayudu’s temperamental issues meant he was at loggerheads with his state associations for a major part of the 2000s. Then ICL happened.

With the BCCI having a crackdown on the now-defunct league, Rayudu was one of the casualties. Eventually, the ban was lifted, and Rayudu found some stability with the Mumbai Indians in the IPL. But, it was not until a few months leading into the 2015 World Cup that Rayudu came into the reckoning as far as the national side was concerned.

The CSK batsman played every single game leading into the tournament. He was named in the 15-man squad for the 2015 event, but didn’t play a single game throughout the World Cup.

Fast forward to 2018. Rayudu had a sensational IPL, and with the Indian team struggling to find an ideal middle-order batsman, he found himself again on the fringe of national selection.

After missing out on the England tour due to a failed yo-yo test, Rayudu finally got his chance in the Asia Cup. Spirited performances in both the Asia Cup and the subsequent ODI series against the Windies convinced Virat Kohli and the team management to the extent that Kohli publicly admitted that Rayudu was the right man for the job.

Such was Rayudu’s desire to play in the 2019 World Cup, that he announced his retirement from FC cricket to concentrate on the 50-over format. But as they say in life, when you want something badly, it just deserts you. You could sense it with Rayudu. With every game leading into the World Cup his runs dried up. The harder he tried, the more inept he looked while countering pace and spin.

Rayudu has played 44 of his 57 ODIs leading into a World event [2015 & 2019 CWC], and the fact that he did not feature in either of them, just goes to show that sometimes your best is not good enough and the harder you try, the deeper you fall.