India’s new head coach Ravi Shastri made it clear that the focus ahead of their tour of Sri Lanka should be on the team and not the coaching staff. India head to Sri Lanka on Wednesday for a full tour, comprising three Tests, five One-Day Internationals and one Twenty20 International. The build-up to the series has been dominated by the appointment of the new head coach and his supporting staff, following previous incumbent Anil Kumble’s resignation last month.
Speaking at a press conference ahead of his first assignment as head coach, Shastri said that the Indian team has done exceedingly well in the last three years to make it to the top of the Test rankings and it’s the players who deserve the credit, more than anybody else.
“The Ravi Shastris and Anil Kumbles will come and go, [but] the fabric of Indian cricket will remain,” he said. “Credit should go to everyone who’s been a part of this team. If the team is No 1 today it’s due to the effort they put in on the field. Coaches will come and go.”
‘Matured immensely’
Shastri also made it clear that he’s a different person now than he was during his previous stint when he was team director. Shastri was in the fray to become India’s head coach last year, before the job was given to Kumble.
The 55-year-old Shastri said that he has “matured immensely in the last two weeks” and that he doesn’t come with any baggage. It’ll be like hitting the refresh button, he remarked, in his inimitable style.
Shastri, who was the dominating voice of the first press conference since his appointment and Kumble’s departure, also insisted that Bharat Arun is the right man for the position of bowling coach. While there is no clarity yet on Zaheer Khan’s role as bowling consulatant yet, Arun will travel to Sri Lanka and Shastri backed his man vehemently, saying he doesn’t need to elaborate on his credentials.
“Look at his track record,” Shastri said, at the top of his voice. “It’s outstanding. He’s been a coach for 15 years and has been part of the system right from the A-teams, junior World Cup teams. He knows these boys better than I do. If you look at the 2015 World Cup [where Arun was the bowling coach], India took 77 out of the possible 80 wickets. If Bharat Arun’s name was someone else who played a lot of Tests, you would have put him on top of the tree.”
‘Can’t control speculation’
Captain Virat Kohli, on his part, was more measured in his response when asked how challenging the tour of Sri Lanka is going to be, given the backdrop of the controversies surrounding the appointment of the coach.
“I only have the bat in hand and my job is to go out there on the field and control what is under my control,” Kohli said. “That’s what I have done over the last two months. These speculations fly around, I can’t control them. My job is to bring the best out of the team and perform to the best of my abilities.”
Looking forward to the Sri Lanka series, Kohli recollected how India’s previous tour to the Emerald Isle was the beginning of their brilliant run in the longest format of the game. India had won the 2015 series 2-1 after losing the first Test in Galle.
“I think that was a landmark tour,” said Kohli. “The team has matured in the last 24 months, and that [series] was the start of the belief system that we can win away from home and we have the side, the team culture for it. Losing the first Test was a shock to us but that’s the team culture we had created. We believed in our abilities and that we can win from any situation.”
With the support staff that Kohli has enjoyed working with in the past now in place, both the captain and coach insisted on the importance of communication. It’s not a secret that there was a breakdown of communication between the captain and Kumble over the past few months. While Kohli mentioned it’s important to be on the same page with the people you work with, just like any other walk of life, Shastri took over and had the final word.
“As a player, you want your mind clear and play without a care in the world about what’s happening on the outside. That happens with good communication with the support staff. As the head coach, my job is to do exactly that for every player. To put him in a frame of mind where he’s thinking only about his role and he’s thinking about the team.”
