Former India head coach Ravi Shastri has lamented the lack of communication between former India skipper Virat Kohli and the selectors during their time at the helm reasoning for Team India’s failures in ICC tournaments in his coaching tenure.
In the Kohli-Shastri regime, India suffered heartbreaks in two ICC white-ball tournaments – loss to New Zealand in the 2019 World Cup semi-final and being knocked out in the group stage in the 2021 T20 World Cup. Before Shastri arrived, India were also defeated in the 2017 Champions Trophy final vs Pakistan which was Kohli’s first major tournament as India’s captain, and Anil Kumble was the coach then.
Ravi Shastri blames Kohli and selectors
One of the key reasons for India’s failure to clinch the trophy in the aforementioned three tournaments, Shastri believes, was the lack of a batsman in the top 6 who could bowl. Hardik Pandya has never been a consistent full bowler and was emerging in these years.
Shastri pointed out that in the past India have had a number of batsmen who could roll their arm over to give 3-4 overs regularly, and now India have the likes of Deepak Hooda and Axar Patel who are doing a similar role.
But, he bemoaned the dearth of such batting all-rounders during his tenure, pronouncing the absence of proper “communication” between the captain and the selectors.
“In the past, we had Virendra Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh, and Suresh Raina, but in the past 3-4 years, you had nobody. So, the whole balance of the side was compromised. So, it was good to see someone like Axar and Hooda on your side. They can bowl, they can bat,” Shastri was quoted as saying by crictoday.com.
“What can help is better communication between a captain and the selectors. Where the selectors are told to identify one player in the top-6 positions who can give you 4-5 overs. ‘I want someone who can bowl 4-5 overs. Find someone in domestic cricket who can do that. Go and find that guy for me.’”
Ravi Shastri, who himself was a great all-rounder, further reflected on batsmen like Sachin Tendulkar and Ajay Jadeja who regularly helped their team with their part-time bowling.
“Sachin would take the ball and try different deliveries like off-spin, and leg-spin. So that is keeda. So, there are plenty. Ajay (Jadeja) would love to bowl after he finished his batting. So, you have to identify. You have 1.4 billion people man, and you are trying to tell me, keeda nahi hai kisi batsman ke paas, bowling karne ka? Kamaal hai (No batsman is interested in bowling? It’s impossible),” the 60-year-old commentator asserted.
