Sanjay Manjrekar lauds Ranveer Singh in his get-up as Kapil Dev hitting the Natraj Shot

Actor Ranveer Singh is doing his level best to emulate perhaps one of the all-time greatest all-rounders in the world, India’s Kapil Dev. Kapil Dev held the world record for most Test wickets and ODI wickets for India for a long time and is known for giving India its first World Cup win in 1983 in England, at just 24 years of age. The Haryana lad will now be immortalized on the silver screen in Kabir Khan’s movie 83, in which Ranveer Singh plays the lead role.

Kapil Dev, known as the Haryana Hurricane, made his Test debut in 1978 against Pakistan and played 131 Tests and 225 ODI matches for India till 1994. He picked 434 Test and 252 ODI wickets and was the first bowler to pick 200 ODI wickets. He remains the only all-rounder with over 5,000 Test runs and over 400 wickets in the format and was rightfully named the Indian cricketer of the century in 2000 by Wisden, beating the likes of Sachin Tendulkar and Sunil Gavaskar.

Sanjay Manjrekar praises Ranveer Singh’s emulation of Kapil’s Natraj shot

Ranveer Singh, who is known to get under the skin of the character he is playing on screen, has worked hard to get the nuances of Kapil Dev correct in the movie, which documents the Indian team’s journey during the Prudential World Cup of 1983, held in England. It encapsulates how a team that had won just one match in the previous two tournaments, defeated two-time champions West Indies twice in the tournament, including the shocking win in finals and changed the course of 50-over cricket. The film is scheduled to release on April 10, 2020.

The Padmavat actor shared an image of himself playing the famous Nataraj shot patented by Kapil Dev. The photo shows Ranveer high on his back foot with the front foot in the air, as he smacks the ball for a four. The photo is recreating Kapil’s amazing innings of 175* against Zimbabwe in the tournament where he helped India to a fighting total from a scoreline of 17/5.

Ranveer shared the image with a caption: “NATRAJ SHOT 🏏 #RanveerAsKapil🇮🇳 @therealkapildev @kabirkhankk @deepikapadukone @Shibasishsarkar @madmantena #SajidNadiadwala @vishinduri @RelianceEnt @FuhSePhantom @NGEMovies @vibri_media @ZeeMusicCompany”

NATRAJ SHOT 🏏 #RanveerAsKapil 🇮🇳 @therealkapildev @kabirkhankk @deepikapadukone @Shibasishsarkar @madmantena #SajidNadiadwala @vishinduri @RelianceEnt @FuhSePhantom @NGEMovies @vibri_media @ZeeMusicCompany pic.twitter.com/RQDlyOKtas

— Ranveer Singh (@RanveerOfficial) November 11, 2019

This led to former India player Sanjay Manjrekar, who played with Kapil Dev, to exclaim how similar the two looked in this shot. He praised the actor for his dedication as to how well he pulled the look off and also lauded the attention to the detail given to the gear wore by the actor as the bat, sweater, pads and shoes are from the 1980s, similar to what Kapil used in the tournament.

“Well done Ranveer! Not easy to ‘pull’ this off. Great attention to detail too with gear etc. 👏👏,” Manjrekar tweeted.

Well done Ranveer! Not easy to ‘pull’ this off. Great attention to detail too with gear etc. 👏👏 https://t.co/ZjEHW4Noq6

— Sanjay Manjrekar (@sanjaymanjrekar) November 11, 2019