‘He told me that he’ll score a century in an hour’ – L Balaji heaps praises on S Badrinath

S Badrinath might not have played a whole lot of matches for India, but he was a stalwart for Tamil Nadu in the domestic circuit. Having scored over 16,000 runs for his state, combining first-class, List A and T20 cricket, he didn’t flatter to deceive by any stretch of the imagination. He also boasted of 38 centuries to go with 89 half-centuries in his cricket career.

He last played in the 2018 edition of the T10 League in Sharjah, representing the Maratha Arabians. In the meantime, Laxmipathy Balaji, another former Indian cricketer, had some words of praises for Badrinath. Balaji, who played quite a bit alongside Badrinath, said how the latter once predicted that he would score a century in a session itself.

Badrinath is the greatest example of how people evolve over time, says Balaji

“Have you heard somebody casually say that he is going to score a hundred? I saw that in 2005. Different Badris. Different stages showcasing what all he could do. He was toying with the bowlers,” Balaji was quoted as saying on R Ashwin’s YouTube show ‘Formula for Success’.

“At one stage, the best spinners were bowling. He had already told me that he is going to score a hundred in an hour and that he is going to hit this bowler for these many runs in this session,” he stated.

Balaji also out forth an incident during the Indian Premier League (IPL) when Badrinath went on to despite being still. Badrinath had played for the Chennai Super Kings (CSK), led by MS Dhoni.

“Badri is the greatest example of how people evolve over time. He was able to transform to aggressive. You must have seen him in IPL. There was a match when he came after getting a round of drips from Malar Hospital due to dehydration. And the team again collapsed,” Balaji added.

Badrinath made his debut for India back in 2008 against Sri Lanka in Dambulla. But his career never took off. In 2011, he donned the national jersey for the last time. He went on to play a couple of Tests, seven ODIs and a solitary T20I in his career.