Ravi Shastri has always been the troubleshooter of Indian cricket. When India faltered in the 2007 World Cup and Greg Chappell resigned after the tournament, he was given interim charge with an eye on a revival. In 2014, when India rolled in the Test England, he was appointed team director, yet for a course correction. During his seven-year tenure, with a mini-break when Anil Kumble took over for a year, Shastri witnessed the rise of India, especially in the longest format.
as head coach under Shastri and Virat Kohli As captain, India went on to become the seventh-ranked Test team in the world to win back-to-back Test series in Australia and take a 2–1 lead in England before the final Test was postponed. The outgoing head coach got emotional on the day of farewell.
Shastri refused to draw any comparison between Test and ICC events, saying that all tournaments/series played in India are important. But he cited bubble fatigue, in which players have been on the road for six months.
“It’s one of the great teams in the history of the sport, no doubt in my mind. Unfortunately, we’re out of this tournament, but that doesn’t take anything away from a great side.” He said in the post-match press conference.
Shastri did not give any excuse for India’s poor performance in this T20 World Cup but said that bubble life can be mentally exhausting. “You’re not running like you should be. That’s no excuse. Because trying to win you’ll lose a game. Here we didn’t try to win, because the X-factor – the players were mentally and physically exhausted – Wasn’t there.”
Don Bradman also observed them, bubble life could be affected. He said, ‘I don’t read much about Virat’s form. I don’t care who the player is. If you put Don Bradman in the bubble too, his average will come down. Eventually, the bubble will burst. “
Shastri agreed that a short break between the Indian Premier League and the T20 World Cup could help the team, but expected it to win an ICC title under the new head coach in the near future – “the only missing piece” “- Rahul Dravid. “They’ll get the rub of green.”
He thanked former BCCI president N Srinivasan for giving him the opportunity to coach India and hinted that his future could again be in TV commentary, where he made a name for himself before joining coaching. “We won back-to-back (Test) series in Australia. We took the lead in England and this could be the longest lead in history (the last Test has been postponed to next year). I can comment on that Test,” said Shastri.
He also thanked outgoing bowling coach Bharat Arun for his brilliant attack and outgoing fielding coach R Sridhar for raising the team’s fielding standards to world class.
.