I couldn’t resist myself from retiring: Renshaw

Australia’s lanky opening batsman Matthew Renshaw 68 (156b, 10x4, 1x6) used his reach to play superbly for the visitors on the opening day of the Test match against India here. The 20-year-old put up an opening stand of 82 with experienced David Warner before retiring ill as soon as Warner was castled by Umesh Yadav.

As Warner was walking back, Renshaw then on 36, too, followed him as Aussie skipper Steve Smith wasn’t impressed and later former Aussie greats like Alan Border and Michael Clarke criticised the youngster.

“The situation developed suddenly. I was struggling and had a chat with Warner regarding it 10 minutes before he got out and there was still half an hour left for lunch. When he got out, I had a conversation with umpire and he told me you can retire ill. But I wasn’t sure whether I could come back. After I made it sure, I just ran out and Steve Smith wasn’t too thrilled about it,” he quipped.

“It wasn’t an ideal situation to be in but when you have to go to toilet, you just have to go to toilet. It was challenging to wait for batting again, as an opener I am not used to it. I didn’t want to let my team down and wanted to make sure we had a pretty good day so I came to bat again after two hours,” said Renshaw after the game.

Indian batting coach Sanjay Bangar also defended Renshaw. “You have to answer nature’s call. No amount of mind and will power can control it, such incidents do happen and add colour to Test cricket. Credit to him, he came back well and showed great character,” the 44year-old said.

Virat Kohli introduced Ashwin in the second over but Renshaw felt they were expecting it. “I went with an open mind and tried to bat as long as possible as we do in Australia,” he said.

It wasn’t an ideal situation to be in but when you have to go to toilet, you just have to go to toilet. It was challenging to wait for batting again. —MATTHEW RENSHAW