‘Tera room number kya hai, I wanna hit you there' - Dilip Doshi recalls his on-field moment against Javed Miandad

Former Pakistan captain and an aggressive batsman Javed Miandad has often been advertised as one of the greatest entertainers on and off the cricket field. There rarely was a dull moment with Javed Miandad around, especially against arch-rivals India.

Miandad always procured attention with his on-field banters. Anecdotes of Javed Miandad’s street-fight attitude have been told several times by various former cricketers from both India and Pakistan, including Sunil Gavaskar. Former Indian spinner Dilip Doshi recalled one such incident when the former Pakistan captain imperilled him asking for his room number to hit him there.

Recalling that incident that took place during Pakistan’s tour of India, when the first Test of the series was being played at Bengaluru in 1983, Dilip Doshi revealed what exactly transpired between him and Javed Miandad.

Javed has street fighting attitude, a truly great batsman: Dilip Doshi

Flinging some light on the incident, the former spinner reminisced that Miandad was truly a great batsman and a good friend of him as well. But once he gets on the field, he is a completely different person.

“Basically you got to understand that Javed has this street fighting attitude, a truly great batsman, one of the best I’ve bowled to, I really respect him as an opponent. He’s a good friend as well, I love him off the field but once he got on the field, it was like a change of character,” said Dilip talking to former India left-arm spinner Murali Karthik in a video interview.

The 72-year-old added that if Javed Miandad was restricted from playing his shots, he would resort to his antics and create some sense of irritability which he did with the likes of Kiran More and Dennis Lillee. Miandad would tell the close-in fielders something to pass on the message to him (Dilip) or walk across and say something directly.

“That day what he was trying to do in Bangalore on my recall Test was trying to tell me ‘What’s your room number? I wanna hit the ball there.’ It became a legendary thing, many people have repeated that, with some added spices but it’s fine, it was all in good banter,” he added.

The cricketer-turned-commentator Murali Kartik asked whether Miandad was actually able to hit him in that match, to which Doshi interestingly answered, “He struggled. He couldn’t hit me. He made 98 and got out.”

The former Indian cricketer of Gujarati origin played in 33 Tests and 15 ODIs picking up 114 and 22 wickets respectively between 1979 and 1983, said players like Miandad, Allan Border, Greg Chappell always brought the best out of him.