The famous Lord’s Test match of India’s tour of England in 2014, marked the debut of Karnataka all-rounder Stuart Binny.
The match is renowned for Ishant Sharma’s heroics with the ball in the fourth innings, where he picked up a seven-wicket haul to hand India victory in the second game of the series.
Also, the contest holds a special place in the career of Ajinkya Rahane, who clinched an impressive ton on an absolute green-top wicket. Rahane faced the likes of James Anderson and Stuart Broad on Day One.
Now, six years later, Binny has revealed details of his conversation with former Indian captain MS Dhoni, while India was under the pump during the game.
“A special day in my life to receive my Test cap #281 from Mahi bhai [Dhoni]. That Test match again didn’t go the way we wanted to. We were under the pump on the last day. I had scored 1 in the first innings, so obviously [I had] a sleepless night before that second innings when I walked in to bat,” Binny told Sportskeeda.
“And Mahi bhai told me, ‘Listen, we need you to bat 4-5 hours to save the Test match’. And I looked at him like I can’t believe he said something like that to me, because I wasn’t even thinking clearly at that time. I was nervous, I was playing my first Test match and hadn’t got runs,” the out of favour all-rounder added.
Binny’s jitters on debut were so extreme that he took the middle-stump guard instead of the commonly preferred leg-stump.
“I walked in, and I normally take a leg-stump guard, and I don’t know what I was thinking that I asked the umpire, ‘Can I have a middle stump, please?’ Then I heard myself and [realised] I don’t take that guard. I was that nervous, I didn’t know what I was doing. I just walked around, and till I got the first 10 runs, my mind was so muddled, I wasn’t thinking clearly at all,” the former Rajasthan Royals (RR) cricketer continued.
“Then the innings slowly built and gave me some confidence. I had batted close to two hours and I was batting on 36, [when] I knew that I definitely belonged at that stage. It was 8-9 years of domestic cricket at that spot – either saving matches or trying to put a game on. It’s experience, I think, that got me through that day. I would have loved to have a Test hundred on debut but it didn’t work out that day. I’ll take a 78 any day of my life,” Binny concluded.
In that match, India won the game by 95 runs but hosts England came back from behind to clinch the series by 3-1.
