The Mumbai middle-order batsman Siddhesh Lad rose to occasion scoring a valuable knock of 117 runs in the second innings to give his bowlers enough runs to bowl. However, Orissa fell 121 runs shorts giving Mumbai six valuable points in a crucial Group C encounter. Siddhesh, who is the son of renowned cricket coach Dinesh Lad, took his cricket lessons from former India cricketer Pravin Amre as his father wanted his son out of the comfort zone.
Leading a life every normal cricketer leads, he had to travel by crowded trains and buses with kits to get tougher, and all this was a part of education.
“Amre sir was an India player, which was one of the factors to go to him too. He knows me since I was 11. My technique was natural and whatever little adjustments I had to make, both of them helped me, though dad remains my in-house coach,” Lad said after the magnificent knock.
Known to be a ‘crisis man’ Siddhesh came to the crease when Mumbai was struggling at 77 for 4 and were 221 runs ahead. He helped his team to post a competitive target of 412 runs on the board. He is renowned for batting with tailenders and while talking about the same said,
“I enjoy carrying that tag. But I want to do better. People still say that I don’t do well even when the team performs. I am trying my best. I am somebody who likes to play for the team and not go for individual runs. I have learned this from senior players like Abhishek Nayar and Aditya Tare.”
Talking about batting-order, the 25-year-old batsman said that he is willing to bat at no 3 & 4 positions given a chance. But at the same time, players like Ajinkya Rahane and Shreyas Iyer deserves it more and is happy batting at the current position. Being one of the two batsmen who could manage to score centuries on a pitch which offered so much to the bowlers, Lad felt that the wicket was challenging to bat on as it was even.
Talking about Rohit Sharma, with whom he has spent a lot of time as the former was a student of Siddhesh’s father he said:
“I look up to Rohit. I am a big fan of his, and I know he is far better than me. I have spent a lot of time with him in the last few years and he keeps giving me inputs.” Siddhesh is also a teammate of Rohit Sharma in the Mumbai Indians side.
“There are regrets of not getting a game yet, but I learned a lot of things from the MI bench. I saw how international players prepare for a game and observed their work ethics. MI gave me confidence. I always knew it was difficult to break into that star-studded XI, so I can’t really complain,” he concluded while talking about how he feels about not making into the first XI yet.
