Playing It My Way: My Autobiography (35 page)

Match drawn

2nd Test. Adelaide. 12–16 December 2003

Australia 556 (RT Ponting 242, SM Katich 75, JL Langer 58; A Kumble 5–154) and 196 (AC Gilchrist 43, SR Waugh 42; AB Agarkar 6–41,
SR Tendulkar 2–36
)

India 523 (R Dravid 233, VVS Laxman 148, V Sehwag 47,
SR Tendulkar 1
; AJ Bichel 4–118) and 233–6 (R Dravid 72*, V Sehwag 47,
SR Tendulkar 37
; SCG MacGill 2–101)

India won by 4 wickets

3rd Test. Melbourne. 26–30 December 2003

India 366 (V Sehwag 195, R Dravid 49, A Chopra 48,
SR Tendulkar 0
; SCG MacGill 3–70) and 286 (R Dravid 92, SC Ganguly 73,
SR Tendulkar 44
; BA Williams 4–53)

Australia 558 (RT Ponting 257, ML Hayden 136; A Kumble 6–176,
SR Tendulkar 1–57
) and 97–1 (ML Hayden 53*, RT Ponting 31*)

Australia won by 9 wickets

4th Test. Sydney. 2–6 January 2004

India 705–7 dec (
SR Tendulkar 241*
, VVS Laxman 178, V Sehwag 72, PA Patel 62; B Lee 4–201, JN Gillespie 3–135) and 211–2 dec (R Dravid 91*,
SR Tendulkar 60*
, V Sehwag 47)

Australia 474 (SM Katich 125, JL Langer 117, ML Hayden 67; A Kumble 8–141) and 357–6 (SR Waugh 80, SM Katich 77*; A Kumble 4–138)

Match drawn

Series drawn 1–1

1st Test. Multan. 28 March–1 April 2004

India 675–5 dec (V Sehwag 309,
SR Tendulkar 194
, Y Singh 59; M Sami 2–110)

Pakistan 407 (Y Hameed 91, Inzamam-ul-Haq 77, A Razzaq 47; IK Pathan 4–100,
SR Tendulkar 2–36
) and 216 (f/o) (Y Youhana 112; A Kumble 6–72, IK Pathan 2–26)

India won by an innings and 52 runs

2nd Test. Lahore. 5–8 April 2004

India 287 (Y Singh 112, IK Pathan 49,
SR Tendulkar 2
; Umar Gul 5–31) and 241 (V Sehwag 90, PA Patel 62*,
SR Tendulkar 8
; D Kaneria 3–14, S Akhtar 3–62)

Pakistan 489 (Inzamam-ul-Haq 118, I Farhat 101, A Kamal 73, Y Youhana 72; L Balaji 3–81, IK Pathan 3–107,
SR Tendulkar 1–38
) and 40–1

Pakistan won by 9 wickets

3rd Test. Rawalpindi. 13–16 April 2004

Pakistan 224 (M Sami 49; L Balaji 4–63, IK Pathan 2–49, A Nehra 2–60) and 245 (A Kamal 60*, Y Youhana 48; A Kumble 4–47, L Balaji 3–108,
SR Tendulkar 1–1
)

India 600 (R Dravid 270, SC Ganguly 77, VVS Laxman 71, PA Patel 69,
SR Tendulkar 1
; S Akhtar 3–47)

India won by an innings and 131 runs

India won the series 2–1

It started in Amsterdam, of all places. It was just another net session before the Videocon Cup tri-series involving Australia and Pakistan towards the end of August 2004. Ajit Agarkar was bowling to me and bowled a short one, which I fended off with one hand. I instantly realized I had done something to my elbow. Andrew Leipus, our physio, didn’t like the look of it at all. It turns out he was right to be concerned.

It was an unfortunate situation because my in-laws had travelled to Amsterdam with their friends from London to see me play and here I was nursing what was later diagnosed as tennis elbow. To complicate matters, I also had a virus and for a good three days couldn’t set foot outside my hotel room. I was desperate to get back in shape as quickly as possible because the ICC Champions Trophy in England started in September and in October Australia were due to arrive in India for a four-Test series.

I did all I could to get the elbow injury treated. An expert in Amsterdam tried to help it by manipulating my wrist. He suspected the elbow was being overloaded because of stiffness in my wrist, but unfortunately those painful sessions didn’t help much. Then I tried shockwave therapy, which involved a machine that looked like a hairdryer being placed on my elbow. The feeling reminded me of blowing up a balloon and at one point I thought my elbow was going to burst under the pressure.

Anjali was about to join me in England and I called her to say she should bring a video camera across. I remember telling her that she would never see me in more physical pain, and we videoed one of the sessions to keep a record of what I had to go through. I was due to undergo three sessions but I urged the doctor to administer a fourth one if he thought it would help me get fit quicker. Anjali’s presence had given me the courage to press on with the recovery and I was desperate to get fit, particularly for the Test series against Australia. Seeing my desperation, one of the doctors asked me how important that series was for me and why I was so determined to play. I said that it would be like missing my own wedding reception and there was no way I would want to do that!

Despite all my efforts, I was in no condition to take part in the Champions Trophy and I also had to miss the first two Tests against Australia. It was extremely frustrating to be forced to sit out and watch Clarke and Gilchrist score centuries to set up a 217-run victory for Australia in the first Test at Bangalore, despite eleven wickets in the game for Harbhajan Singh. I even had a steroid injection on the eve of the second Test match in Chennai, but it didn’t work. The Chennai Test was a draw and then finally, after two weeks of complete rest, the pain had subsided enough for me to return for the third Test at Nagpur on 26 October 2004. It wasn’t the greatest comeback match. On a seaming pitch, Gillespie took nine wickets and Damien Martyn just missed out on a century in both innings, as Australia won by 342 runs. My contribution was a disappointing total of ten runs.

In the final Test at the Wankhede Stadium the following week, Rahul and I were at the crease in the second innings when all of a sudden I felt a searing pain in my elbow again. It was at a critical stage in a low-scoring match and I was worried that I had rushed the comeback and was going to let my team down. I immediately asked for some painkillers and, thinking to myself that it would have an instant effect, decided to chew up two tablets rather than gulping them down. Gritting my teeth, I dug in and managed to battle my way to 55. With Laxman scoring a brilliant 69, we set Australia a target of 107 in the fourth innings. Helped by another five-wicket haul from Harbhajan and three from the left-arm spinner Murali Kartik, who was the Player of the Match, we proceeded to bowl Australia out for just 93 and won the match by 13 runs. The pain was definitely worth it. Unfortunately for Kartik, he did not get another chance to play Test cricket for India after that.

We followed the Australia series with two home Tests against South Africa in November 2004. The first at Kanpur was a draw, but the second at Kolkata, starting on 28 November, brought a very satisfying victory, with Bhajji proving a match-winner again, this time taking seven wickets in the South African second innings.

Even though I was still not fully fit, my contribution was gradually improving and by the time of the first match in a two-Test series in Bangladesh in December, I was in good enough form to make my highest Test score – 248 not out – at Dhaka. It was also my thirty-fourth Test hundred, equalling Sunil Gavaskar’s world-record tally. He was actually commentating in Bangladesh at the time and he kindly sent me a fabulous gift of thirty-four bottles of champagne to make it a truly memorable day in my career.

In March 2005 Pakistan were scheduled to visit us at home for three Tests and seven ODIs. It was a tour I really did not want to miss and I pushed myself as hard as I could, trying to ignore the soreness, but I eventually realized that I was struggling for form and I wasn’t doing my elbow any good. It was time to face the prospect of surgery, something I’d hoped to avoid.

The procedure was carried out on 25 May 2005 and I was told it would be four and a half months before I could hold a cricket bat. Those months were extremely difficult. I couldn’t help worrying that my career might be over and would often pray to God that my career should not come to an end like this. It was very frustrating not doing anything and at one point I hung a ball in a sock below our apartment and tried doing some shadow practice with a plastic bat, but even that was really painful. The last two months were the hardest. I could barely sleep and would have to go out for long drives in the middle of the night with my friend Faisal Momen just to try and calm down a little.

The first games I played after the surgery were in a domestic competition, the limited-overs Challenger Trophy in Mohali in October 2005. The elbow was not completely back to normal but I felt it was time to try it out. In my very first day of practice I experienced some pain in my shoulder after a throw. Here I was recovering from left elbow surgery and now my right shoulder was hurting. I put it down to my prolonged absence from the game and went ahead with the games, but the pain increased with each passing day and I even started having problems with my right elbow.

I was in Baroda when I got to know that my surgeon, Dr Andrew Wallace, was in Delhi for a day. However, with no flight connections to Delhi from where I was, I was beginning to get worried about how to get to him before he left. That’s when my good friend Amit Bhatia stepped in. Amit, who is an ardent cricket fan, gave me a ride in his private jet and made sure I reached Dr Wallace in good time. On examining my shoulder, Dr Wallace said that during rehabilitation athletes often put too much load on the non-injured limbs to compensate and it was likely that’s what had happened to me. He asked me to have a few scans, to figure out the nature of the problem. I did not want to fuel more speculation in the media about my injury, so when I went to get the scans done, I resorted to wearing a burkha, which shows how difficult things were at the time! John Gloster, our new physio, accompanied me to the hospital and the scans revealed a small cyst next to a nerve. I was told I needed to get it removed as soon as possible, though I could play on for the moment.

My return to international cricket finally happened on 25 October 2005 in the first ODI of a series against Sri Lanka. It was a truly emotional moment when I took the field after six months out and the first thing I did was to look up to the heavens and thank God for giving me another opportunity. I scored 93 and this time it was exactly the sort of comeback I had hoped for. My first scoring shot was a cover drive for four against the medium-pacer Farveez Maharoof and I flicked the next ball to square leg for another boundary. I was determined to make the most of this lifeline. We won the match by 152 runs and went on to take the series 6–1.

In the three-Test series that followed in December 2005 I scored my thirty-fifth Test century, making the world record my own. The hundred had eluded me for a while and at Chennai, the venue for the first Test, I was beginning to wonder how long I would have to wait. Though most of the drawn Chennai Test was lost to rain, something happened there that put me in good spirits: I had a dream in which I saw myself scoring the thirty-fifth hundred in Delhi, the venue of the second Test.

I didn’t really expect it to work out that way, of course, but then towards the end of 10 December, the very first day of the Delhi Test, I found myself in the nineties as the light began to fade rapidly. The umpires were discussing whether to stop play, but I was desperate to stay out there and was praying that they would continue the match for just another few minutes. They did so and Chaminda Vaas, the left-arm fast-medium bowler, was put on to bowl. Vaas was bowling wide of my off stump with a packed off-side field and I knew I had to try something different. I decided to play a chip shot behind the wicket from way outside off stump, a shot no one would expect me to play just a few runs short of my century. I got it just right and to everyone’s surprise reached 97 with a well-calculated risk.

The umpires checked the light again at the end of the over and to my relief decided to carry on. I knew I had at least a few more minutes to get to the hundred. In the next over from Vaas, by which time I had picked up two more singles, I had already made up my mind not to repeat the shot. I predicted that Vaas would be expecting me to paddle-sweep and would change his line and bowl to me on the stumps. I was proved right and he bowled a ball on middle stump which I played towards square leg for a single.

I was so delighted at reaching the century that I did something very out of character. I shouted in jubilation and celebrated in a manner I had hardly ever done in my career. I was very proud of the achievement. We went off shortly afterwards and when I got back to the dressing room I couldn’t control my emotions. With tears flowing down my cheeks, I made four phone calls – to Anjali, Ajit, my mother and Achrekar Sir – to thank them for all they had done.

While I managed to play in the Sri Lanka series, followed by three Tests against Pakistan in January 2006 and England in March 2006, Tests in which I didn’t do a great deal, I realized that shoulder surgery was unavoidable if I harboured any ambition of going to the West Indies for the Test series in May. I decided not to play in the one-day series against England and went ahead with the operation on 27 March in London.

It wasn’t quite as straightforward as planned. As normal, I was sedated before being moved to the operating theatre, but for some reason I suddenly woke up on the trolley and asked the nurse if the operation was over. She was shocked to see me awake and told me that it had not even started. There had been some complication with the previous operation and mine had been delayed. I drifted back to sleep but a little later woke up again and asked a doctor if the ordeal was finally over. To my surprise I was told that this time they had had to wake me because of an unexpected discovery. They had spotted a ruptured tendon in my right biceps and needed my consent to fix it while they did the shoulder surgery. I agreed, but asked them to make sure I recovered in time for the West Indies series! In fact, as soon as I’d got back to my room from the operating theatre, I cried and cried because I thought I was going to miss the West Indies series, which I was very eager to play in.