‘What’s your room number? I wanna hit the ball there’: Dilip Doshi on banter with Javed Miandad in 1983 IND v PAK Test

When it comes to on-field banters there are many that come to mind. The one between Australia Test captain Tim Paine and Rishabh Pant to even the one between Virat Kohli and Windies bowler Kesrick Williams.

However, one of the most renowned banters was the one between Javed Miandad and Dilip Doshi during the India vs Pakistan 1st Test in 1983 at Bengaluru.

Recalling the incident, Doshi said, “Basically you got to understand that Javed has this street fighting attitude, a truly great batsman, one of the best I’ve bowled to, I really respect him as an opponent. He’s a good friend as well, I love him off the field but once he got on the field, it was like a change of character”.

Dilip Doshi in the interview with former India left-arm spinner Murali Kartik added: "Miandad loved room outside the off stump. My style of bowling is bowling at the stumps. I restricted his favourite shots, if he had to carry on, he would have had to take risks. Sometimes he wasn’t willing to do that, it would frustrate him and the only way he would try to get you off your concentration was to create some sense of irritability and he was good at that, he has done with Kiran More, he did it with Dennis Lillee and he has done it many more times with me. So he would tell the close-in fielders something to pass on the message to me or walk across after the ball is bowled and he would say something".

“That day what he was trying to do in Bangalore on my recall Test was trying to tell me ‘What’s your room number? I wanna hit the ball there.’ It became a legendary thing, many people have repeated that, with some added spices but it’s fine, it was all in good banter,” Doshi added.

When asked whether Miandad was actually able to hit him in that match, Doshi said, ‘he struggled’.

“No, he struggled, he couldn’t hit me. He made 98 and got out,” said Doshi.

The 1983 Test match had turned out to be Doshi’s last for India. He said he was disappointed for getting dropped despite being the ‘best spinner’ in that Test match.

“That was the last Test match I played and I think I had bowled quite well and felt very dejected and disappointed and even bitter to never get an opportunity after that. All the critics that were watching declared me the best bowler by far in that match so then you feel like there’s no point in persisting playing for India. That’s where I decided I’ll play one season for Saurashtra, my home by birth. So I played one season before developing my business,” added Doshi.

Doshi represented India in 33 Tests and 15 ODIs and picked up 114 and 22 wickets respectively between 1979 and 1983. He added that players like Miandad, Allan Border, Greg Chappell always brought the best out of him.

“Allan Border, Greg Chappell, Javed Miandad they brought the best out of me. I got Wasim Raja and Ian Botham a few times too, they are the challenges I used to love,” he added.