Veteran wrist-spinner Amit Mishra, who recently retired from all forms of cricket, looked back on a funny moment from his early days with the Indian team. Mishra, who made his international debut in 2003 against South Africa in Dhaka, recalled a lighthearted exchange with legendary pacer Javagal Srinath. Speaking in an exclusive interview with RevSportz, Mishra revealed how Srinath jokingly referred to him as a “desi boy.”

“Srinath was very helpful to me. I remember this one time when I entered the team, Srinath told me in his broken Hindi, ‘Aa gaya bhai desi chore. Laya kuch hamare liye? Ghee wagera (The desi boy has come. Got something for us? Like ghee).’ Everyone was very good to me,” Mishra recalled with a laugh. During his early years, he shared the dressing room with icons like Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh, and Sourav Ganguly.

When reflecting on his three-decade-long career, Mishra thanked seniors and captains for their support but also stated that he did not always get a fair deal being out of the team for long periods. Nevertheless, he still thanked his seniors and captains, with special mention of Sachin Tendulkar, who used to guide me on whistle while doing practice sessions.

Sachin’s guidance during The Oval stand

One of Mishra’s most memorable batting moments came during the fourth Test against England at The Oval in 2011. Promoted to number five as a nightwatchman, he joined Tendulkar at the crease with India struggling at 118/3. The pair went on to share an 84-run partnership, with Mishra scoring a career-best 84 off 141 balls while Tendulkar fell for 91. “First day went by and I was not out, and the second day, I went to Sachin Paaji and asked him how I was doing. He replied, saying: ‘Just play your normal game, normal shots, don’t think too much about what match it is or who is bowling to you… Just play it like you are playing domestic.’ So I followed his words and once the game started, he himself told me that he could see the confidence in me,” Mishra said.

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“It was before lunch or maybe after that he again suggested something to me, and that was to take singles and doubles and not play shots against the spinners. The partnership started building and his guidance in between helped me the most,” he added. Mishra’s 84 remains the highest score by a nightwatchman for India in Test cricket. Across his career, he notched four Test half-centuries and an unbeaten double century in first-class cricket, alongside 17 fifties.

August 31, 1969- birthday of one Javagal Srinath, one of the best fast bowlers to ever play for Team India. Before the era of Zaheer Khan, Asish Nehra, or Ishan Sharma, Srinath was the spearhead of India's pace attack. His pair with Venkatesh Prasad became a formidable force for the Men in Blue.

The pacer from Karnataka was in his prime in 1998. With his strong shoulder action and ability to produce leg cutters and the slower deliveries, he introduced himself to the world of cricket as a wicket-taking bowler. At that time, he was considered the fastest bowler for India to play on international stages. From late 1998, in a span of 12 months, he took 50 wickets in five series at 29.6. During 1991-92, in the initial stage of Srinath's international career, he picked ten wickets in the five-Test series in Australia in 1991-92.

He repeated his performance against South Africa by clinching 12 from three matches, including six in the draw in Cape Town. In 1996, when South Africa visited India, the right-handed bowler harvested 17 from three tests. In the same year, when India traveled to South Africa, the medium pacer picked up 18 in the series, including 7 wickets in Johannesburg.

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South Africa was Javagal's happy hunting ground 

In his overall Test career, Javagal captured 236 wickets in 67 matches and 121 innings. In ODIs, the pacer clinched 315 scalps in 229 matches. After retiring from international cricket, Javagal Srinath developed himself as an ICC match referee to grace the gentleman's game more. 

He played four World Cups for India in his entire career. Including his best in 2003. In 2003, he took 16 wickets at 23 in India's run to the final, which marked his last international outing. Srinath announced his retirement in 2003 and then went on to become a match referee. 

Mohammed Siraj’s wicket from the fifth day of the third Test had given the fans a walk down memory lane from the 1999 Chennai Test match when the former Indian bowler, Javagal Srinath, also was dismissed in the same fashion. At Lord’s, Siraj’s dismissal brought an end to India’s stay against England with a 22-run defeat.

It was the Shoaib Bashir ball to which Siraj tried to defend. The mistake he made was not being attentive to the ball, which popped up in the air and bounced on the seam to hit the stumps. It was just a dramatic end to the game as Ravindra Jadeja stood there alone on the other end with his hands on his head, looking at the heavens.

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It took the fans back to the 1999 Chennai Test match, when Saqlain Mushtaq tried the same sort of ball to which Srinath defended, and the ball bounced just before the stumps to break the furniture. It was nearly the same emotion for the Pakistan players and the fans as the England players and their fans had at Lord’s.

Watch: Mohammed Siraj matches Javagal Srinath's dismissal against Pakistan in 1999 Chennai Test

Both teams came into the third Test of the Anderson-Tendulkar series with a 1-1 margin. Even after three days’ of hard batting, no one was able to get the better of the other one, as they finished with the first innings score of 287 as Joe Root and KL Rahul celebrated their centuries from the respective camps.

Siraj’s last wicket today brought back memories of Javagal Srinath’s dismissal by Saqlain Mushtaq in the 1999 Chennai Test. Both moments were heartbreakers! #ENGvIND 🏏 pic.twitter.com/EWCC1yGV5i

— Nibraz Ramzan (@nibraz88cricket) July 14, 2025

In the second innings, England kept coming hard against Inda, who also kept on picking wickets at regular intervals. Joe Root again showed courage and batted beautifully before going back to the hut on a brain fade. Washington Sundar picked up four crucial wickets in the second innings of their bowling.

The chase of 193 was going to be a tough one, and it became even harder after the visitors lost four wickets in the third evening. They again lost three in the first 40 minutes of the chase. That was nearly the end of the game, apart from Ravindra Jadeja, who stretched it till the end to keep the hopes of the fans.

West Indies head coach Daren Sammy has raised serious concerns over the performance of TV umpire Adrian Holdstock during the first Test against Australia in Barbados. Following a series of controversial decisions on Day 2, Sammy reportedly met with match referee Javagal Srinath seeking clarity on multiple calls that went against the West Indies. He also recalled similar frustrations with Holdstock's officiating during the recent ODI series in England, where the South African served as TV umpire twice and stood on-field in another game.

Two incidents in particular left the West Indies camp dismayed. The first involved the dismissal of captain Roston Chase, adjudged lbw to Pat Cummins despite what Sammy and the team believed was a clear inside edge. The second was the decision to give Shai Hope out caught behind off Beau Webster, a catch ruled clean upon review by the third umpire. Sammy, frustrated, said, "We are just trying to find some sort of understanding as to what the process is... We only hope for consistency. That’s all we could ask for. When there is doubt in something, just be consistent across the board."

Sammy didn’t mince words, stating that doubts about this particular umpire's consistency began during the England series. "Yeah, look, you don't want to get yourself in a situation where you're wondering about certain umpires. Is there something against this team? But when you see decision after decision, then it raises the question," he said. "So I want to have that conversation as to the process... so we could all be clear. Because, at the end of the day, you don’t want to be going into a Test match not trusting the umpires."

Sammy seeks clarity amid growing frustration

While Sammy stopped short of confirming whether a formal complaint would be filed, he admitted to having questions. "You'll have to wait and see for that," he said when asked about lodging an official protest. Speaking specifically about Chase's dismissal, which broke a 67-run partnership with Hope, he added, "In our opinion, we saw the ball deviate onto the pad." On Hope's catch, Sammy referenced a similar incident from the previous day, when a catch taken by Hope to dismiss Travis Head was ruled not to have carried. "I'm just saying, judge what you see," Sammy remarked. "Again, I don't know what he's seen, but from the images that we've seen, the decisions are not fair enough for both teams. I just want fairness."

Sammy reportedly met with match referee Javagal Srinath after the day's play to seek clarification regarding multiple decisions that didn't go in the West Indies' favour.#WIvsAUShttps://t.co/f4VeMvn1IX

— CricketNDTV (@CricketNDTV) June 27, 2025

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Australia, too, shared some of the unease. On Day 2, they had an lbw review against Chase turned down due to “insufficient evidence,” despite replays suggesting a pad-first impact. Mitchell Starc voiced doubts about the syncing of visuals and audio. "As players, you can only ask a question. We don't use the technology to make that decision... it sort of felt like, or looked like, the Snicko and the images were out of sync," he said. Sammy, aware of the boundaries when commenting on officials, had already instructed his players not to speak publicly. "We know the rules. We know fines are going all across the board... but look at the Test match (us) against our own selves, some of these decisions, and we're still in a position to win," he added.