'Sir, next Test I shouldn't play' - R Sridhar reveals what Hanuma Vihari told him during 2019 Vizag Test

Hanuma Vihari is one of the unsung cricketing heroes of India who has got the job done for the team whenever it was demanded from him but more importantly has also put the teamabove himself. Lately, the Indian team’s former fielding coach R Sridhar has come forward and said that the Test specialist had sacrificed his place for the team’s cause during a home series in 2019.

Vihari has been included in the Indian squad for the ongoing two-match Test series against Sri Lanka. The 28-year-old might have made his red-ball debut during the away series against England in September 2018 but, in the 13 Tests that he has played so far, he had only featured in one home series and that was against South Africa in October 2019. However, he is currently batting at three in the ongoing Mohali Test.

We don’t need six batters: Hanuma Vihari

Coming back to sacrificing his place in the side, R Sridhar recalled the 2019 Test match when Hanuma Vihari himself had come to him and stated that he shouldn’t have played the game in Vizag. He felt that India should play an extra bowler and they don’t need an extra batter in home conditions.

“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,” said R Sridhar as quoted by Cricbuzz.

“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”, the ex-fielding coach added.

Speaking of the Vizag Test, India had pumelled 502 runs in their first innings thanks to Mayank Agarwal’s 215 and Rohit Sharma’s 176. Hanuma Vihari had scored only 10 runs in the first innings and wasn’t required to bat in the second. It has been nearly four years since the Andhra Pradesh cricketer first burst onto the scene at the highest level but, he has not been a part of the team on a regular basis in order to establish himself.

Nonetheless, it seemed as if the middle-order batter was peaking at the right team when he was involved in a match-saving partnership with Ravichandran Ashwin in the SCG Test despite suffering from a hamstring injury. Even though he got the job done, the injury aggravated and Vihari was ruled out of the following home series against England. However, Vihari will be keen now to seal his place at number three in India’s Test side.