IND vs NZ | Nothing has changed at Basin Reserve from 39 years ago, recalls Ravi Shastri
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Head coach Ravi Shastri, who made his Test debut at the Basin Reserve — the venue for the first of two Tests between India and New Zealand — has said that nothing has changed from 39 years ago. Shastri also recalled moments from his first outing in 1981, which India eventually lost.
Team India are all set to take on New Zealand at the Basin Reserve in Wellington on the very same day, 39 years after the two teams had faced each other at the same venue. That match was the first time that Shastri, the Men in Blue’s current head coach, played for the country.
"I would have never believed I would come to the same ground, the same venue, playing against the same opposition. I went into the dressing room, it's the same dressing room. Nothing has changed. The Basin Reserve, I made my debut here 39 years ago. I wouldn't have believed it. To the day, 21st February, I'd be back after 39 years," Shastri told Cheteshwar Pujara in a video shared by the BCCI.
Shastri, who was drafted in to bowl his left-arm spin and bat lower down the order, landed in New Zealand only a day before the match, went straight to the hotel and then to the ground the next morning for the game.
"I'll never forget that. I reached New Zealand at about 9:30 at night. The late Bapu Nadkarni came to fetch me at the airport. The Indian team was at the high commission for their official do.
"I went straight to the hotel and my roommate was Dilip (Vengsarkar) but there was no one in the room so I crashed out. Next morning, Sunny (Sunil Gavaskar) lost the toss, we were put into field and there you were, you were playing the game and you were playing straight away," he recalled.
The 57-year-old impressed with the ball, picking up a total of six wickets in the match, even as the visitors went on to lose the match by 62 runs.
"I think I was nervous. I was definitely nervous as one would imagine anyone playing his first game, but I bowled tidily and I got one wicket - of Jeremy Coney - and that got my confidence going. Conditions were totally different from what you were used to playing in India or anywhere else in the world because there were blustering winds. It was a very very cold day. Thanks to Polly Umrigar's sweater. I didn't even have my own sweater," Shastri added.
