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Cricket Players‘Nobody would have bet on me to do that,’ S Badrinath’s unforgettable moment from short India career
Contrary to the general notion, Badrinath was by no mean a T20 liability.
Subramaniam Badrinath looks back at his short India career with no regrets. In fact, he takes a lot of pride in having accomplished something not many believed he could do, play a T20 game for the country and win a Man-of-the-Match award. Yes, Badrinath’s batting was as old school as it could get, right out of the Wasim Jaffer manual. And yet, the batsman on his T20I debut for India, scored a match-winning 43 for India against West Indies, but unfortunately never got a game again.
“That has been part and parcel of my life. I am not a guy who dwells much on the past. I am still thinking about what I can do right now. There’s always this talk about that I could have played more Test cricket. But it’s something which isn’t in my hand,” Badrinath told India.com in an interview.
“Whenever I held the bat, I played with the best of my ability. I gave my 100 per cent. At the end of the day, I can’t select myself. For that chance has to be there. Not in my hand. Life is a great equaliser. I played close to 120 games for Chennai Super Kings. Don’t think anybody could have actually believed I can play T20 cricket. To play T20I for India and get man-of-the-match on debut, nobody would have bet on me to do that.
“So, in hindsight, that gave me a lot of satisfaction and a lot of security. I am really proud to have been able to play so much of T20 cricket.”
And rightly so. Contrary to the general notion, Badrinath was by no mean a T20 liability. He has 1441 IPL runs, and played a crucial role in CSK winning back-to-back titles in 2010 and 2011, scoring 356 and 396 runs respectively with seven half-centuries. But as memorable as they may be, Badrinath admits there a quite a few moments from his playing career which he cherishes.
“Test debut,” Badrinath answered when asked about the most memorable moment of his career. “Playing for my country was one of the biggest dreams and the two IPL wins (2010 and 2011) are very close to my heart. Both the years I performed well for them. They were career-changing for me. In 2011, I got the Madhavrao Scindia award for the highest aggregate of runs so that is also a memorable moment. It’s not easy to score that many runs. 2008 my ODI debut. Me and Virat (Kohli) made debut in the same series.”
Like any other cricketer, Sachin Tendulkar was Badrinath’s idol while growing up, even though there were a few more who left an impact on him.
“Sachin Tendulkar without a doubt. He’s my idol. Countless times I have tried to emulate him in whatever way I can. Rahul Dravid, Ricky Ponting, Michael Hussey are all up there. Among the current lot, Virat Kohli is a complete package. I don’t judge by one format. A person who is able to fight across formats is a complete cricketer in my book and Kohli does that,” he said.
