'Ravi Shastri is the right choice, but now he has to repay the faith placed in him,' says Sourav Ganguly

Former Indian captain Sourav Ganguly has always been a great admirer of Indian cricket since his retirement. He was one of the most aggressive captains that India had and is the one who brought some drastic changes in the national team. Ganguly was the one that inherited the aggressive approach and made India win several big tournaments during his tenure.

After his retirement, he has become a vital part of the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) and is currently working as an active President of CAB but there has been a history of clashes between the former Indian captain and Ravi Shastri who is currently the head coach of Team India, but Dada has said some positive things about Shastri that might clear the reports of rift among the two former players.

In 2016, Dada was a part of the Cricket Advisory Committee that was appointed to pick the head coach for Team India, and they opted for Anil Kumble ahead of Shastri, but after India lost Champions Trophy 2017 final, Kumble faced a lot of criticism and was replaced by Shastri.

Dada opines over Ravi Shastri 

However, Ganguly at a promotional event expressed that, Ravi Shastri is the right choice at the moment who knows all the players inside-out but he needs to gain his faith by winning an ICC tournament, “Ravi has been doing this for five years and has now been given this responsibility for two more years. I don’t think anyone else in history has got such a long time with the team. He is the right choice, but now he has to repay the faith placed in him. He has two T20 World Cups coming up (in 2020 and 2021), and in such big tournaments, India needs to find ways to win.”

Dada feels a team with Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, and other players are nowhere short in talent, “A team that has Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Hardik Pandya, Kuldeep Yadav, Rishabh Pant and Shikhar Dhawan is not short on talent. But it’s also true that we lost the semifinals in the 2015 World Cup, in the 2016 T20 World Cup and now in 2019 World Cup. They will have to find a way to win knockout games. That is the puzzle they need to solve. They need some luck, take some risks, and find a way.”

The right-hand all-rounder Shastri has been given an extension of two years on the post of Team India’s head coach and in between that tenure, India has to play two back to back T20 World Cups in 2020 and 2021 respectively along with some other major tours.

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