It doesn't feel like 22 years since I sat in Narendra Hirwani's room at the Karnataka State Cricket Association guesthouse, interviewing him after the 1996 Irani Cup match in Bangalore. The then discarded India leg-spinner had claimed eight Karnataka wickets in the game and was eyeing a comeback after not figuring in any of the three Tests on the 1996 tour of England. He had played his last Test a little less than a year ago and probably feared his international career was in decline.

However, nothing could take away the fact that he had clinched the man-of-the-match award in that 1995 Test against New Zealand at Cuttack. In Bangalore, his Rest of India team had lost the Irani Cup to Karnataka, but his sacrifice in the form of a fast, done prior to the season-opening match had paid off because he achieved some success on the Chinnaswamy Stadium strip.