Addressing a press conference this afternoon in Kolkata, just before Indian cricket team’s departure for Dhaka for the Bangladesh tour, team director Ravi Shastri confirmed that he will continue doing the job. He also asserted that team has enough senior cricketers and would not require coach as of now. In fact, he added that he will double up as head coach of Indian team if needed. Both Kohli and Shastri were present while speaking to media at the press conference.
Ravi Shastri – Cricket
Indian cricket team will visit Bangladesh shortly to play one test and 3 ODIs against each other. India’s test squad will be led by Virat Kohli while MS Dhoni will be the captain of India’s ODI squad. Sources added that Ravi Shastri’s tenure might be extended up to the next year’s World T20 tournament. However, the final call on his extension as team director would be finalized by the BCCI once the ODI series against the neighboring country is concluded.
With Rahul Dravid’s selection as the coach of India A and U – 19 cricket team, it was expected that Indian national squad will also get its new coach soon, but it is now learnt from today’s press conference that India will actually play without any coach at least for some more months from now onward. Team India has not appointed any coach for the last few months, since March 2015. However, both Kohli and Shastri are confident that young cricketers would improve tremendously under the guidance of India’s Mr. Consistent.
Virat Kohli was in full praise of Ravi Shastri’s contribution to Indian cricket for the last three decade and more. “It is nice to hear what Virat said, but, I must compliment the entire coaching staff. The coaching bunch we have are experienced people. When it comes to Virat, he is outspoken, he is straight. What you see is what you will get with him. That is the kind of mindset that is spreading within the team as well. It is an honest bunch.
“Apart from Virat being outstanding, I thought the Test series (in Australia) was the catalyst. Even today, 80% of people who know their cricket say they enjoyed watching the Test series,” Shastri added.
When Virat Kohli was asked about his experience as India’s test skipper, he exclaimed that he learnt a lot from the Australia series in the beginning of the year and is now looking forward to perform well for the team. The dashing right hander also explained that individual performance doesn’t matter when the team isn’t winning matches.
The elegant batsman also explained that India doesn’t take the challenges of Bangladesh lightly, because Bengal Tigers have played some fantastic cricket in recent times. The Delhi-born-cricketer is of the view that ultimately cricket is a battle of bat and ball, and a team that performs well on a particular day wins the match. Indian team is hopeful of giving their best performance at the upcoming series.
Tags: Bangladesh, Cricket, Indian Cricket, MS Dhoni, Ravi Shastri, Test Cricket, Virat Kohli
