Bengaluru: India lost the World Cup semifinals in 1996. IAS officer Shailendra Singh was transferred to Mumbai from Madhya Pradesh in the early 2000s. A comical goof-up unfurled at the Indian Premier League auctions on December 19, 2023. Punjab Kings defeated the Gujarat Titans by three wickets on Thursday night.
These seemingly unconnected events are in fact tethered by a man who is so used to getting overlooked that his resignation has led to his resurgence.
Shashank Singh, at 32-year-old, has finally shown the world what he has always believed he was capable of: bat out of his skin.
Lest we get carried away, he isn’t a particularly difficult batter for bowlers to get a grip on in the days and matches to come, but the thing Shashank does best is get out there and bat without fear. Even world-class technique can’t hold a candle to fearless shanking.
That’s what unfolded on Thursday night as he got into good positions and slayed a rather good Titans’ bowling unit en route 61 from 29 balls, including six fours and four sixes.
Again, it wasn’t aesthetic. It was purely effectual. It was purely redemptive.
Shashank was the same person the Kings didn’t really want for themselves during the auction. Though they eventually claimed they did want this Shashank as opposed to a 20-year-old from Bengal with the same name, it was too late to cover up the gaffe.
All Shashank said on his social media was: "It's All Cool … Thank you for trusting on me!!!!”
What else could he have said?! Moreover, he was still reeling from being snubbed by the Sunrisers Hyderabad after the 2022 season. His numbers might suggest poor quality, but the reality is that he barely got a chance to bat, and when he did he was left with only so many deliveries to make an impact.
Still, Shashank hoped his abilities would be rewarded with more playing time. Well, that was a rather naive thought given how the rest of his life had been up until that point.
When Shashank’s father Shailendra moved to Mumbai, he reckoned the move would be a good one for obvious reasons. Shashank’s unorthodox style as a top-order bat and a part-time off-spinner had allowed him to grow in confidence at the Under-15 and Under-17 levels in MP, but he was going to have to reinvent himself for the "Mecca".
“Everyone is talented in Mumbai, but I managed to do well in white-ball cricket. Though it was just four games. I scored runs in the Kanga League and then I represented Mumbai in the U-19, U-21, U-23 and U-25 levels,” Shashank had said in an interview.
Eventually, he was picked to play for the senior white-ball side in 2015. But, after 15 T20s and three List A games across four seasons for Mumbai, Shashank realised the poor valuation of his stocks and took his talent to Puducherry as a professional for the 2018-19 season.
He got around to playing just one List-A game for Puducherry due to an injury, but the next season he was playing for the state of his birth - Chhattisgarh. He has remained there since with 21 first-class games under his belt.
But Shashank’s true prowess was always for the shortest format, and yet, despite being in the IPL system since 2017, he didn’t get a shot at playing until the 2022 season with Hyderabad.
From the time Delhi picked him in 2017 to the time he played groupie with the Rajasthan Royals between 2019 and 2020, Shashank was perfecting the art of patience. Even when he was ignored at the auctions in 2021, he didn’t mind it much. He went back to the grind with a certain MS Dhoni on his mind and tried to stay relevant.
“I had a chat with him (in 2022), he told me that if you are playing 10 games as a finisher and doing well in two, then you are right up to the mark. If you are finishing off three games successfully, then either you are Michael Bevan or MS Dhoni. Those were his words. I got a hell lot of confidence. People who are at that level know that it’s not easy to score 25 in a few deliveries or hit three sixes in the death. The guy who plays as a finisher needs to be ultra smart and ultra quick. You have to be a step ahead of them and the fielding captain,” he had revealed.
What Dhoni says might not be the gospel, but he sure as hell inspires those moments away from slipping through the cracks, becoming ‘just another cricketer’.
Speaking of inspiration, Shailendra devoted his life to making Shashank a cricketer after watching India turn into a sweaty mess of disappointment in losing to Sri Lanka at the Eden Gardens in 1996.
See? Everything is connected.
Deccan Herald is on WhatsApp Channels| Join now for Breaking News & Editor's Picks