Virat Kohli is now a leader of men: Ravi Shastri

Team India director Ravi Shastri has expressed his happiness after India’s 3-0 victory over South Africa recently. He said in an interview with BCCI.tv that he is proud of his boys and that they have become men. Shastri has gone on say that the side’s performance is no “less than any team’s performance since the time cricket started in India.”

Ravi Shastri had said before the series that this will be the most historic series in India since the 2001 Test series against Australia and in many ways it came true.

Shastri said, “there was a reason for saying that. I just had that intuition that this is going to be massive. We were playing the No. 1 team in the world. For me, when you talk about bilateral series, Tests are what matters. No one remembers these ODI and T20I bilateral series. In those formats it is the World Cups that matter. Test cricket doesn’t have World Cups, and it is very rarely that you get to play against the No. 1 team. The mindset was to set the record straight. A lot of noise was made over the surfaces we had, but both teams had to play on those pitches. And everyone who watched the series will know which the better team was.”

The Indian team was in a phase of transition for a while. Shastri was asked whether he thinks that the young team India’s transition has finally completed with this series win, to which he said: “They have. And this comes out of respect for the South African team. They are the most consistent team in the world across all formats. Whatever conditions they play in, there are a damn good side, and they showed that in the ODIs and the T20Is. To have a record where you are unbeaten overseas for nine years is amazing. It compares with the West Indies team of my time and the Australian team at the turn of the century. For the boys to do what they have done against such a team, they should enjoy and cherish it…This performance is not lesser than any team’s performance since the time cricket started in India” he replied proudly.

The Indian batsmen were pushed outside their comfort zone and the former Indian all-rounder believes that it was a big an education for them. “Look at Ajinkya Rahane. The way he got out in the first Test — once defending and once playing an attacking shot. And you saw how he batted in the final Test in Delhi. He was sure in attack and defense, which is the name of the game. The problem what we’ve had in the Indian team is that our boys don’t play enough domestic cricket, and it is not their fault. The calendar is so packed. So, the footwork and the way they play spin bowling on turning tracks, that aspect needs massive improvement. That will come when you are exposed to these conditions. They have played overseas for the last two years and when they came home for this series, the conditions they have grown up in were suddenly foreign to them. But it was an education” he asserted.

“Look at Ajinkya Rahane. The way he got out in the first Test — once defending and once playing an attacking shot. And you saw how he batted in the final Test in Delhi. He was sure in attack and defense, which is the name of the game. The problem what we’ve had in the Indian team is that our boys don’t play enough domestic cricket, and it is not their fault. The calendar is so packed. So, the footwork and the way they play spin bowling on turning tracks, that aspect needs massive improvement. That will come when you are exposed to these conditions. They have played overseas for the last two years and when they came home for this series, the conditions they have grown up in were suddenly foreign to them. But it was an education” he asserted.

“It also brought out the other side of a few players. Shikhar Dhawan for instance… played a very uncharacteristic game. In fact, I told him after the match, ‘You scored 20s and 30s in this series but don’t ever forget that those runs are priceless. They are as important as a 70, 80 or hundred on any other surface. You stalled the new-ball bowlers, kept them at bay and took your side in a solid position’… It was a facet of his game he didn’t know existed. How many people would have thought AB de Villiers would bat for three sessions for 40 runs? For me, the respect for him has gone several notches higher. Shikhar did the same thing.”

Ravi Shastri also confidently says that India Test captain Virat Kohli has now become the leader of men. “December 9, 2014, the young man captained India in a Test match for the first time, in Adelaide. A year later I can say that he is now a leader of men…” Shastri said in a nostalgic manner.

Obviously, he is the right person to judge Kohli as he has seen him closely since he took over the captaincy and has noticed the growth and change he has gone through as a person and as captain.

“The last two days of the Delhi Test posed a different kind of challenge for the team. It is one thing trying to get the batsmen out when they are scoring runs. But when they have decided to shut shop, it is very difficult for the bowling team to praise them out. For me, the last day’s cricket in Delhi was fabulous. What stood out in our team was the intensity. You never saw the shoulders dropping or the heads falling. They chipped away, one over at a time, and when the opportunity came, after tea, they blew the opposition away. It was a spectacular finish. The spectators got their money’s worth in the last 20 minutes of that Test” he concluded.

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