Sports / Ravi Shastri retained as Team India head coach till 2021

Hindustan Times : Aug 17, 2019, 10:03 AM
It's time for Ravi Shastri 4.0. The former captain was reappointed as the head coach of India cricket team on Friday after Kapil Dev-led Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) interviewed 5 of the 6 shortlisted candidates in Mumbai.

CAC chief Kapil Dev, while addressing the press after the interviews, called it a "close race" and said Mike Hesson and Tom Moody were not far behind when the 3-member committee marked them based on their interviews.

"We didn't discuss who is giving whom how many marks. When we calculated it was a close race, the difference was small and we were amazed," Kapil Dev said after revealing the CAC rated Ravi Shastri, Mike Hesson and Tom Moody in that order.

Tom Moody and Mike Hesson are proven customers and certainly have more experience than Ravi Shastri when it comes to the coaching job. While Moody, who led Sri Lanka to the World Cup final in 2007, has more than 14 years experience, Hessson became the longest-serving New Zealand coach and took the Black Caps to their maiden World Cup final in 2015.

The former Australian medium-pacer has coaching experience of more than 14 years. In 2005, Moody was appointed as head coach of Sri Lanka and he led them to the final of the 2007 World Cup before leaving the post and going back home to coach Western Australia for three years.

Despite the "close race", the CAC's call to persist with Ravi Shastri isn't a surprising one.

Close working relationship with Virat Kohli major plus for Shastri

Captain Virat Kohli had made his intentions clear even before India left for the West Indies for a full-tour. Addressing the media in Mumbai ahead of the departure, Kohli said the team would be happy if Shastri continued as the head coach.

With the captain giving out his opinion even as the selection process was due, the CAC members then gave out statements, saying Kohli's comments will not influence their selection process. CAC chief Kapil Dev said that Kohli has the right to voice his opinion but maintained that the CAC will go through the processes before announcing the coach.

Ravi Shastri's close working relationship with Virat Kohli has certainly worked in the former's favour. It has to be kept in mind that former coach Anil Kumble parted ways with the team in 2017 after a much-talked-about rift with the captain.

Notably, Kapil Dev also pointed out that he felt Shastri was the best among the 5 shortlisted candidates when it came to their ability to communicate with the players.

Shastri came on board as Team India's director between 2014 and 2016 and was at the helm when Virat Kohli took over from MS Dhoni as the captain of the Test team. The duo worked together and successfully changed the approach of the then young team by going for the kill against Australia in a 4-Test series. The change in approach was evident as under Kohli, India ran Australia close, especially in Adelaide.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it

Moreover, Shastri's familiarity with the system would have given him a brownie point. The 3-member CAC, it seems, has adopted a safer approach when it came to hiring someone.

"Being the coach, current coach, knowing the boys, he is well versed with the entire system, while the others were not, they had to start. Somebody knows the system, knows the players very well, can communicate well, he has the advantage," CAC member Anshuman Gaekwad said.

Ravi Shastri's numbers are impressive as well. He may not have helped India win the World Cup but Team India's performance in the quadrennial tournament was exceptional until they were knocked out in the semi-final.

With Shastri at the helm, India went to win their first-ever ODI series in South Africa in 2018 and completed a historic Test series win in Australia in 2019.

India have won 11 out of 21 Tests, 43 out of 60 ODIs and 25 T20 Internationals out of 36 on his watch.

India have not won an ICC tournament since 2013. However, Shastri has an opportunity to end India's drought as he will be with the team for 2 T20 World Cups (2020 in Australia and 2021 in India) and the World Test Championships between 2019 and 2021.

It remains to be seen if Ravi Shastri 4.0 can fix India's middle-order concerns and the ones surrounding the frequent chopping and changing.

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