Javed Miandad Asked My Room No And Said I Wanna Hit You There, But Couldn't: Dilip Doshi

Javed Miandad, the former Pakistan legendary batsman, was a complete entertainer on the cricket field. Whether it was his backfoot punches or his street-smart batting or his verbal duels with the opposition bowlers, Javed Miandad was folklore’s delight.

One of the most famous Javed Miandad stories on a cricket field was when he asked Indian spinner, Dilip Doshi, about his room number during India-Pakistan Test at Bangalore in 1983.

Dilip Doshi, in a recent conversation with Murali Karthik revealed what exactly transpired that day between him and Javed Miandad.

“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,” said Dilip Doshi in an interview with former India left-arm spinner Murali Kartik.

“He 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,” Doshi recalled

“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.

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When asked if Javed Miandad was actually successful in hitting him for a six, Dilip Doshi said that ‘he struggled’

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

That Test match also turned out to be Dilip Doshi’s last game for India. The former spinner said that he was ‘disappointed’ and ‘bitter’ after having been dropped despite being described by many as the ‘best bowler’ in the 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.

Dilip Doshi featured in 33 Tests and 15 ODIs for India between 1979-1983, in which he claimed 114 and 22 wickets respectively.

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