“Had to go to toilet”, says Matt Renshaw
Australian opener Matt Renshaw on Thursday became the talking point after he was forced to take a "toilet break" just when David Warner was dismissed, an act of desperation that certainly didn't amuse his skipper Steven Smith.
While some may have had a laugh at the 20-year-old's expense, he was quite a sport when asked to revisit morning incident. In fact not everyone has to answer more questions on nature's call than his gritty 68.
"It came pretty suddenly. Maybe 5 or 10 minutes before Davey (Warner) got out, I asked Richard (umpire Kettleborough) how long there was till lunch and he gave me the answer of "half an hour" and I was struggling a bit then. It wasn’t an ideal situation to be in," even if one wanted to grin but couldn't help but sympathise with the youngster.
So how did skipper Smith react knowing about his problem, Renshaw answered:"He (Smith) wasn't too thrilled about it but he understands that when you need to go to the toilet, you’ve got to go to the toilet."
"It wasn't an ideal scenario but it's life, pretty much. Obviously, we just lost a wicket so there would be two new batsmen out there but it's a hard scenario to be in and he understood. We've had a chat now and we are all good."
Renshaw said that he wasn't sure about the ruling. "I wasn't too sure on the ruling," he explained.
"I didn't know you could retire ill so I thought I just had to get out there and make sure I batted until lunch. Then coming back it was probably a bit strange for me waiting to bat because as an opener you just go straight out there and bat. That was probably the most challenging bit, waiting to bat."
Renshaw admitted that when two new batsmen were at the crease, he started feeling guilty about his condition despite the fact that he had no control over it.
"I felt quite bad knowing that I could be letting the team down, so that's why I went back out there. I wanted to do my bit for the team and try and make sure we had a good day."
India's assistant coach Sanjay Bangar understood his situation. "When you answer nature's call, no amount of will power or mind power can control that. He had to go, probably he held back. He was having that conversion with (captain Steve) Smith as well, whether he could do it or not. But beyond a point, it wasn't controllable. Such incidents happen, it all adds to the colour of Test cricket, Bangar said. —PTI