Ravishankar Jayadritha Shastri 
pronunciation (help·info) (born 27 May 1962 in Bombay, India) is a former Indian cricketer and captain. He was an all–rounder who batted right–handed and bowled left arm spin. His international career started when he was 18 years old and lasted for 12 years. He started his career purely as a bowler but gradually became more of a batsman who could bowl.
As a batsman, he was essentially defensive with the "chapati shot"[1][2] (a flick off the pads) being his trademark shot, but could raise his strike rate when required. Due to his above-average height (he stood 6' 3" tall) and an upright stance, he had a limited number of shots against fast bowling, but was able to put the lofted shot to good use against spin bowling. Shastri played either as an opening batsmen or in the middle order.
The highlight of his career was when he was elected the Champion of Champions in the World Championship of Cricket in Australia in 1985. In the same season, he equalled West Indian Garry Sobers's record of hitting six sixes in an over in first class cricket. He was regarded as a potential captain, but his image outside cricket [3], injuries and tendency to lose form at crucial times meant that he captained India in only one Test match.
In domestic cricket, he played for Bombay and led them to the Ranji Trophy title in his final year of playing. He also played four seasons of county cricket for Glamorgan. He was forced to retire aged 31 due to a recurring knee injury. He is now a noted TV cricket commentatoShastri's family originally came from Mangalore in Karnataka but he was born and brought up in Mumbai[4], then called Bombay. His father, M. Jayadratha Shastri, was a doctor[5] and the family had a strong academic tradition.[4] It was only as a teenager that he took cricket up seriously. Shastri reached the final of the 1974 inter–school Giles Shield with the Don Bosco school in Matunga, Mumbai, losing to St Mary's, whose lineup included two future Ranji players, Shishir Hattangadi and Jignesh Sanghani. The next year, under Shastri's captaincy, Don Bosco won the Giles Shield. Shastri set a record for the highest score in the final, which stood for 27 years.[6]
At school, his coach was BD Desai, once a Tatas and Dadar Union player. While Don Bosco was not traditionally a major force in schools cricket, the R.A. Podar College, where Shastri later studied commerce, produced many good cricketers. Vasant Amladi and, in particular, VS "Marshall" Patil, were integral figures in Shastri's development as a cricketer. In his last year at the junior college, he was selected to represent Bombay in the Ranji trophy[7]. At 17 years and 292 days, he was then the youngest cricketer to play for Bombay.
An Indian under–19 team was scheduled to tour Pakistan in 1980–81. Shastri was included in the coaching camp at the last minute by the National Coach Hemu Adhikari. Shastri captained one of the two teams in a trial game and was then asked to lead the Indian Under-19 team. The tour, however, was cancelled. The team later went to Sri Lanka, but the games were frequently interrupted by rain.[8]
His only notable achievement in his first two Ranji seasons were bowling figures of 6-61, which he took against Delhi in the 1979–80 Ranji final that Bombay lost. While he was playing against Uttar Pradesh at Kanpur in the next season, he was called up to the squad touring New Zealand to stand in for the injured left arm spinner Dilip Doshi. Shastri arrived in Wellington the night before the first Test. His first over in Test cricket was a maiden to the New Zealand captain Geoff Howarth. In the second innings, he took 3 wickets in four balls, all to catches by Dilip Vengsarkar, to bring a quick close to the New Zealand innings. In the third Test, his seven wickets won him the man of the match award, while his 15 wickets in the series were the highest for either side.
Mumbai, India
The glorious winter
In October 1984, India toured Pakistan for the third time in six years. The Lahore Test saw India collapse to 156 against Pakistan's 428, and follow on. India went into the last day trailing by 92 with six wickets in hand but were saved by a fifth wicket partnership of 126 between Shastri and Mohinder Amarnath. Shastri scored 71, while Amarnath made 101*. Shastri was even more successful in the next Test at Faisalabad, where he scored 139 and shared a stand of 200 with Sandip Patil. The last Test and the remainder of the tour were cancelled because of the assassination of Indira Gandhi.
There were already signals that Shastri was being groomed as a future captain. Indian captain Sunil Gavaskar was coming to the end of his career and Kapil Dev, who had led India in the previous season, was expected to succeed him. Shastri appeared to be the next in line. He led the Young India side to Zimbabwe in early 1984. Against the touring English side in November, he led the India Under–25 to an innings win - the first defeat of England in a tour match in India for fifty years.
Around this time, Shastri also began to open the innings regularly in one day games. He scored 102 against Australia in October – India's second hundred in ODIs – and made the same score against England at Cuttack in December. Shastri had stood in for Gavaskar and opened with Srikkanth in two matches of the 1983 World Cup. The third time that they opened was at Cuttack and they set a world record of 188 for the first wicket. Later in the season, this partnership was to form the foundation for the Indian triumph in the WCC in Australia.
Shastri's success continued in Test matches against England. In the Bombay Test his 235 run stand with wicket-keeper Syed Kirmani led to victory for India (it is still the national record for the seventh wicket). His 142 improved upon the 139 at Faisalabad as his highest score.
In the third Test at Calcutta, Shastri made 111 in 357 balls and 455 minutes, though his innings was heavily interrupted by rain. With Mohammad Azharuddin he added 214 for the fifth wicket, another Indian record. When India started the second innings late in the final day, he was sent in to open, thus becoming one of the few batsmen to bat on all five days of a Test.
Shastri set another record for Bombay against Baroda in a West Zone Ranji match. His first hundred came up in 72 minutes and 80 balls and included nine fours and four sixes. The second took just 41 minutes and 43 balls. His 123 ball, 113 minute 200* became the fastest double hundred in first class history, beating the previous record by 7 minutes, and included 13 fours and 13 sixes. Six of the sixes came off a single over of the left arm spinner Tilak Raj. In terms of the number of sixes, it bettered the 58 year old Indian record of CK Nayudu who had struck 11 sixes against a touring MCC team at Bombay Gymkhana in 1926–7. Shastri's unfinished sixth wicket stand of 204* with Ghulam Parkar, who contributed only 33 to the partnership, took only 83 minutes. In Baroda's second innings, Shastri took two wickets in four overs. [11]
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