Bat-smith Mahesh Ranasube helped India and England players ahead of the 1st ODI

When in Pune, do it like the Punekars. The India and England teams were in the city for the 1st ODI of the series and the local boy Kedar Jadhav didn’t just assist the Men in Blue on their way to a record chase he also helped players from both the teams in getting their bats fixed. When the teams arrived Jadhav took his bat for repair to bat-smith, Mahesh Ranasube a 25-year-old city boy who has turned his passion into profession and his shop Ubhe sports is the only store in the city that repairs bats.

Jadhav the Pune-lad has been taking help from Ranasube from the last couple of years. “I used to work on Jadhav’s bat and he was quite happy with my work. He recommended my name to Dhoni and that’s how most of the players gave me the assignment. I am grateful to Kedar.” The Maharashtra batsman introduced him to the players and that is when former Indian skipper MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli and England’s Joe Root and Ben Stokes also took their bats to the self-learned expert.

He fixed a total of 12 bats ahead of the game with Dhoni sending him most four bats. “Dhoni’s bat needed a bit of extra work, while those of other players required minor touch-ups here and there,” Ranasube was quoted by Bangalore Mirror as saying.

Explaining the different repair requirements he said he works on handle replacement, pressing it up, oiling the bat, knocking the middle of the bat, re-working the tapes and restructuring the bottom. Indian captain Kohli also got a couple of bats repaired from Ranasube. He didn’t charge the Indian players a penny against it as he felt it was an honor for him to assist the cricketers who represent the country.

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England batsman Joe Root wasn’t willing to take his services for free and so gifted him his batting gloves, Stokes, on the other hand, made him accept Rs 2,000. “I was not doing this for money, since most bats belonged to the Indian players and serving them made me feel patriotic. Apart from Dhoni, Kohli and Jadhav, I also worked on Manish Pandey and Ravindra Jadeja’s bats,” he said.