Hanuma Vihari Demanded To Be Dropped From The Team During 2019 South Africa Series, Says R Sridhar

Mar 3, 2022 at 1:11 PM

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Hanuma Vihari Demanded To Be Dropped From The Team During 2019 South Africa Series, Says R Sridhar

R Sridhar, the former Team India fielding coach has recalled a fascinating chat with batter Hanuma Vihari during the home series against South Africa in 2019.

Hanuma Vihari played the first Test of the series as the additional sixth batter and scored only 10 (24) in the first innings. The 28-year-old was still fighting for his place on the side and every opportunity counted. However, he went to R Sridhar and demanded to be dropped from the playing XI in the greater interest of the team.

R Sridhar.(Twitter)
R Sridhar. (Twitter)

R Sridhar: Hanuma Vihari Didn’t Want India To Play With An Extra 6th Batsman And Demanded To Be Dropped From The Team In South Africa Series In 2019

R Sridhar said Hanuma Vihari understood that with the top-five in form, India didn’t need an extra batsman and would be better off playing another bowler. The Andhra batter didn’t shy away from expressing his thoughts either, even if it cost him his spot.

In an interview, R Sridhar said: “During that Vizag Test, I remember he came to me and said ‘Sir, I should not have played this Test’. Hanuma had played that Test because he had got a hundred in the previous Test in Jamaica. In India, we play with certain combinations… We still won that Test match on Day 5 but it took the class of Shami to get us there and took so much out of him.”

Hanuma Vihari
Hanuma Vihari- AP Photo

He added: “He said, ‘Sir, next Test I shouldn’t play. We should play with an extra bowler because the way we are batting, we don’t need six batters’. Rohit was on fire in that series, Mayank was batting brilliantly at that time and it was also his first Test in India. Hanuma knew that the captain of the team would always keep the team ahead of him. He understands.”

India did what Hanuma Vihari wanted and brought in pacer Umesh Yadav as his replacement in the second Test. The hosts won it comfortably by an innings and 137 runs and went on to claim the series 3-0. The five-batsmen and five-bowler combination was cemented and the Vizag Test became Hanuma Vihari’s first and only international outing in India.

R Sridhar: Hanuma Vihari Is A Terrific Reader And Has Got A Good Sense Of The Game

R Sridhar, who’s coached Hanuma Vihari at the junior level, feels Hanuma Vihari is a “terrific reader of the game”. Citing an example, he also recalled another defining team-man moment of the batter’s career – when the middle-order batter was asked to open in the 2018 Boxing Day Test against Australia, which he gladly accepted.

He said: “Hanuma is a terrific reader of the game. Tactically, he’s one of the best I have seen, he has such a good sense of the game. Even with the Indian team, when he was in the reserves, he used to come up with very good tactical inputs.

“In Melbourne (in 2018), when Ravi (Shastri) told him that you might have to open, he put his hand up and said, ‘no problem. I will play’. He understands the game, knows what the team requires and I haven’t seen him get flustered by not getting his opportunities to play.”

Ajinkya Rahane, Cheteshwar Pujara. Image Credits: Twitter
Ajinkya Rahane, Cheteshwar Pujara. Image Credits: Twitter

Hanuma Vihari is in India’s squad for the two home Tests against Sri Lanka. In the absence of Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane, he has a good chance of becoming a regular at No.3 or No.5.

For the first time in more than 10 years, India is playing a Test with neither Cheteshwar Pujara nor Ajinkya Rahane. The last time they did so, Virat Kohli was yet to score a Test hundred. He now has 27 and is playing his 100th Test.

Hanuma Vihari has played Tests only in conditions that warrant the extra batter, which is almost always away from home. The one argument against Hanuma Vihari can be that he is a defence-first batter, which shows in his strike rate of 42.67. Hanuma Vihari has scored 684 runs in 13 Tests averaging 34.2.
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