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After Test highs, a quiet exit for coach Shastri
The former India skipper, who joined the team as director in 2014, took the team to great heights in Test cricket and formed a strong bond with skipper Virat Kohli.
For someone whose career dictum has been “bring ‘em on” Ravi Shastri signs off as India’s cricket coach on a rather subdued note, walking out of a dressing room where the mood is of quiet acceptance following the T20 World Cup elimination.
Still, when he leaves the team’s bubble and takes the 90-minute flight out of Dubai to Mumbai, the former all-rounder can look back at the high points of a long tenure in a job that will be defined by his partnership with skipper Virat Kohli, where often one was seen in the mirror image of the other’s aggression.
Shastri first parachuted in from the commentator’s box in 2014 as the overarching team director, the cricket board’s firefighter to shore up the team morale dented by a second consecutive Test series defeat in England. Out for a year as BCCI replaced him with Anil Kumble in 2016, Shastri returned on his terms, presiding over four eventful years.
Though the T20 World Cup disappointment means India did not win an ICC trophy under his watch, the other unfinished project will provide a lot of satisfaction. His final big act put India on the cusp of a series win in England, a controversial decision to keep off-spinner R Ashwin out of the playing 11 not stopping India from leading 2-1 with a game to play. India can secure their first win there for 15 years when they return next year for the postponed final game. Even a defeat will mean a drawn series, marking the distance travelled by the team.
That performance underlined the spine India’s Test team repeatedly showed playing overseas under Shastri. It also ensures arguably the biggest legacy of his tenure—establishing that a home-bred coach with a broader vision can provide the kind of leadership once seen as a foreigner’s domain. India will expect Rahul Dravid to reinforce that when he takes charge with the home series against New Zealand later this month.
Shastri also presided over building a potent fast-bowling department with bowling coach Bharat Arun, helping further the philosophy with Kohli that the main focus must be to take 20 wickets, and win games, even it meant playing only five specialist batters besides the wicketkeeper. The consistency of Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammad Shami and Mohammed Siraj along with the seasoned Ishant Sharma and Umesh Yadav means, if runs can be put on the board, India can win anywhere.
Converting Rohit Sharma into a limited-over opener in 2013 under MS Dhoni’s captaincy paid rich dividends for the batsman and India, starting with the ICC Champions Trophy win in England. Sharma the converted Test opener has been equally impressive, playing a major role against England this year.
The other was presiding over India’s back-to-back series victories in Australia. Plotting the leg-stump line to shackle Steve Smith in the 2020-21 series and motivating a team dismissed for an all-time low 36— with Kohli returning home to go on and win the series— amid the challenge of the pandemic bio-bubble and a series of injuries will also be up there.
Though he helped batsmen tweak their technique playing abroad, India’s middle-order uncertainties hurt. The refusal to select Ajinkya Rahane at the start of the 2018 South Africa tour—India won the final Test with Rahane playing but were down 0-2 by then—and Cheteshwar Pujara in the first Test at England that summer—the visitors lost the series 1-4—was interpreted as his not providing a counter-view to Kohli.
The No. 4 conundrum at the 2019 ODI World Cup, keeping Ashwin out of all four Tests and the Karun Nair episode on the 2018 tour did raise questions on Shastri’s performance. Declaring the Kohli-led Test team as India’s best touring side while it was losing the series was also questioned by former India stalwarts.
“It (the journey) has been fantastic. When I took this job, I said in my mind I want to make a difference, and I think I have. Sometimes in life, it's not all about what you accomplish, it's what you overcome. And what these guys have overcome over the last five years, the way they have travelled across the globe and performed in every part of the globe in all formats of the game will make this— irrespective of what's happened here — as one of the great teams in the history of the game,” Shastri told the official World Cup broadcaster on Monday.
He picked India’s Test performances as the high point of his tenure. “Winning in red-ball cricket across the globe…. We were always labelled as big bullies at home, but when you had to travel outside, you didn't have the goods. But this team has shown they have plenty of that.
“In Dravid, they’ve got a guy who has inherited a great team and I think with his experience, he can only raise the bar in time to come. There are still players here who will play for another 3-4 years, which is very important. It is not a team in transition… Virat is still there, he has done a fantastic job as the leader of the side, he has been the biggest ambassador for Test cricket over the last five years. Lot of credit goes to him for the way he’s thought about how he wants the team to play and how the team has rallied around him.”
If Shastri was all fire, Dravid will be more the ice. Among his priorities will be helping Kohli regain his batting best.
