Published: Apr 15, 2016, 07:13 PM (IST)
Edited: Apr 15, 2016, 07:24 PM (IST)
The former Indian Team director Ravi Shastri believes Virat Kohli‘s mindset is similar to a certain West Indies legend Viv Richards. Shastri, whose contract as the team director of India expired after T20 World Cup 2016, is now back to his usual commentary. He spoke about many things in his long interview with Wisden India, including Virat Kohli. He believes the way Kohli approaches the game, he saw a huge similarity in that of the West Indian legend. Richards is considered by many to be one of the greatest batsman of all time. And Kohli, who played a sublime 82* knock against Australia in the earlier concluded T20 World Cup, is tipped by many to reach to such heights. ALSO READ: Former Team India Director Ravi Shastri discusses his life and cricket
Shastri was asked about a whole lot of things in his interview with Wisden India. When asked about how to handle image in India where things are generally based on image rather reality
I don’t think so. If anything, this job is one where you have to be accountable and responsible. When you are playing, you have the bat and the ball. When you doing commentary, you have the mike. Here, everything is beyond your control once the players go (out on the field). The work that has to be put in is much more, and the eyeballs pointing towards you are that much more. I believe, at the end of the day, come what may, in whatever work, it is results that matter. I keep things simple. Just clear the baggage, believe in what you can do to produce consistent results. If that happens, everything else is to one side.”
Also quizzed about his perceptions as an individual, he said,” am not on Twitter. I am not on Facebook. I am very clear-cut in what I have to achieve. I am not some one who is kaan ka kachcha (To believe everything one hears) as they say. I am not into gossip. I know my business, and the bottom line is I like to mind my own business. And I have goals. If you are focused in that direction, what is happening on the outside will happen. Everyone’s not the same. Some people will embrace it, some people will give it a flick. It is not my terrain, not my territory, just move on cool headedly and focus on the job on hand. ALSO READ: Virat Kohli, Ravichandran Ashwin, Murali Vijay in favour of Ravi Shastri continuing as India Team Director
He was also asked about his feeling of taking over Team India director role and whether he found it tough to come in.
Not at all, because my personality is such that I take up challenges of that sort. I want to cut across barriers and come straight to the point, which is communication and trust. For me, that was the first nail I had to put in. I always believed they were a terrific side. They were low on confidence and they were probably not approaching the game in the right way, the way it should be played when you consider the talent they have.
Those were the two areas you had to focus on, and you kept things simple. You said, let’s hit those areas first, let’s get the trust, let’s get the communication going. Let’s get the work ethic better, where there’s no shortcut. It might take time, it might take three to four months before we are back to winning ways. And then you know things will fall in place. But what I saw was a transformation that was quite immediate. I didn’t expect that. But then again, it’s why I jumped in, because I knew there was huge talent there.” ALSO READ: Ravi Shastri’s contract with BCCI ends; to be renewed if Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Sourav Ganguly approve
He was also quizzed about his role and how things worked when Duncan Fletcher was still there
It was very clear who was in charge. And what was the road ahead. It wasn’t a case of three people giving their opinions. It was one guy saying after consulting with everybody that this is the way to go ahead.
It was Duncan’s team, but I was instrumental in paving the way, in showing the path. Whether Duncan liked it or not, he had to accept it, as simple as that. As director of the team, I am in charge of the coaching staff. I oversee everything that happens with the team. The direction and ideas were clearly mine, once I had discussed it with the other guys.”
He also had his say no the team’s mental condition during the time he took over
I thought there was too much of individual stuff, rather than propelling a team ahead. You know, channelising your energies not for individual performances, but to what would make a team play better. It is team first, then you.”
Speaking about if there was any insecurity surrounding the team during that time, he said,”Of course. When you get hammered in three days … two days. I was there as a broadcaster and I told them what I had seen on the tour. I said I saw fabulous cricket at Lord’s, at times great cricket, the way Ajinkya (Rahane) played for that first-day hundred. Then, I saw ordinary cricket, and very timid cricket. I said: You showed me everything. But I still believe you are a terrific side and that’s the reason I am here.”
He also had his say on if it was conditioning due to which they lost series to England, and Virat Kohli as a Test captain
I think it was a mixture of everything. I thought the real turning point was the tour of Australia. Don’t go by the scoreline, watch what happened six months down the line. A lot of people laughed at me at that time. They were 2-0 down, they had not won a game in Australia. But the approach to the game, the way the game should be played, is what I liked on that tour. We tried to chase down nearly 400 to win the game (in Adelaide), and looked to take the game forward. Showed a lot of steel in saving two Test matches at two of the biggest grounds in the world, Sydney and Melbourne. It’s never easy to bat out day five and hold Australia back. I thought that was a magic tour. I don’t care about the results, but I know what it did for the team mentally. The rest is history.
There has obviously been a change in Test captaincy. I don’t expect you to compare them, but do you think there is a certain synergy in the way you work with Virat Kohli? In terms of the approach to the game, you seem remarkably similar as individuals. He can be in your face as a player.
He wants the game to go forward. Where he is absolutely magnificent in his work ethic. He is second to none when it comes to effort, training, time put into his own game, and in the interests of the team. When you have a captain with that kind of passion, it starts rubbing off on other individuals, which is exactly what’s happened in this team. Since he took over the Test side, everyone wanted to try and emulate him and be at least on the same page. That helped their own games, and helped the team.
What happened in Adelaide in 2014, trying to chase down a massive total on the final day, probably wouldn’t have happened a few years earlier. India didn’t go for a much smaller target in Dominica in 2011. How much of that do you attribute to your influence on the team?
We have always said that we’ll take the game forward. My reasoning, and Virat’s, was bang on. In fact, he said at the team meeting on day four that whatever we have to chase, we will try to. For me, it was the right tactic because of the amount the ball was turning. We still lost nine wickets in the last session of play.
If we had started playing conservatively in the first session, I think that game would have been over maybe before lunch or half an hour after lunch. So instead of that, you take the game to the opposition. If we are in that same position at tea again, maybe a year or two down the line, in another Test match, we would probably win it. You would have learnt from what you could have done better.”
He was also asked about Virat Kohli’s innings the loss against Australia at Adelaide in 2014, and whether he has witnessed anything similar before
It is the best fourth-innings batting I have ever seen in my years as a player, broadcaster, and team director. It was an unbelievable innings – just the tempo he went at was fabulous. When the captain is thinking in that fashion, the players believe. Another couple of contributions, and we were home and dry.
A lot of great players have struggled in the fourth innings of a Test match. I don’t want to bring up names, but what do you think sets him apart in those pressure situations? Because we have seen it repeatedly in limited-overs games as well. I think what sets him apart is intent. He doesn’t believe it is a fourth-day track. He believes there is equal opportunity to score runs then as he had on day one. He thinks in that fashion.
I saw that with Viv (Richards). I saw an innings he played against us when he made a brilliant hundred in the fourth innings to win the game. Yes, similar mindset. ‘I am not bothered about the pitch, I am not bothered about the total I am chasing, I want to get one run more.’
He also spoke about India’s performance in Sri Lanka last year, having lost the first game
We discussed it; we didn’t leave the dressing room (in Galle) for two hours after the game. We had a good honest chat, where we said we won’t lose a Test match like this again. Let’s face it, I don’t think we will ever dominate a game for that long and then lose it in one or one-and-a-half sessions. So get it out, what was wrong, what should be the way forward. Let’s bury it right here, and go out thinking of winning the series.
That was the mindset of the boys, and that’s why they played they way did in the second Test. A lot of teams 1-0 down will be like, ‘arre yaar, I don’t want to be losing another’. Instead, we came out and played. There were reverse sweeps pulled out, there were sweeps being played, there was a lot more intent and you took the game to the opposition. Suddenly, Sri Lanka, who thought they had the upper hand and thought India would just back off and take their time … it was as if India had won the first Test.
He was also asked whether the series win against Sri Lanka was down to individual players
No, no, no. Ash (R Ashwin) was brilliant with the ball in the series. Ishant (Sharma) was outatanding. Jinx (Rahane). Rohit (Sharma). (Cheteshwar) Pujara in the final Test – outstanding hundred. Stuart Binny. You had seven to eight players. That’s when the fun starts, when you have so many contributing. That’s when you really enjoy the job you do.
Finally, he was asked about how he felt in the series win over South Africa last year, where talk of the town were the pitches
At the end of the day, both the teams have to play on a surface. Okay, you might get one that might turn a little bit more than the other. What stops a ball seaming alarmingly on day one? No one talks about that when you go overseas. Here a ball turns … why can’t a ball turn? The conditions are such with the oppressive heat … you try and put grass on the surface, there will be no grass. It will be dead grass.
It happened to turn that day (in Mohali). I don’t think we played really well in that first Test. If South Africa had batted properly, they would have given us a run for our money. But after getting one past them, we were a different team. We came to the second Test in Bangalore. What was wrong with that surface? They were bowled out for 200, and we were 80 for no loss with four days to go. People might want to talk about that pitch.
Third Test was Nagpur. There, the ball was turning. Again, there were moments when the game was pretty close. They faltered, we handled the pressure situations better. Delhi was a classic example. We have one batsman who got a hundred in each innings and batted as if there was nothing wrong in the pitch. We got 300, we got 280, the other side is bowled out in a bad way. That pitch is there for both teams. People thought it would be spinners who would take wickets, but it was reverse swing that won us the game.”
