Time to draw curtains on Virat Kohli-Ravi Shastri 'friendship club'

Ajit Vijaykumar 08:30 14/08/2018
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Mail
  • Pinterest
  • LinkedIn
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • WhatsApp
  • Pinterest
  • LinkedIn
  • Defeats are part of professional sport. India lost the three-Test series 2-1 in South Africa earlier in the year but most Indian fans were proud of that result as it was some of the highest quality of cricket played by any Indian team away from home on a sustained basis.

    But what the Indian team – No1 in Test rankings – did in the second match at Lord’s was unacceptable to the point of being revolting. As clinical as England were, losing a Test inside effectively two days is not acceptable for any decent Test side, forget a top-ranked team.

    It’s time for some serious changes and it has to start right at the top. Not with Virat Kohli, but Ravi Shastri.

    The current India coach lost out to Anil Kumble when interviews were held for the post in 2016. It was bold decision by the Indian management – led by Cricket Advisory Committee of Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman and Sourav Ganguly – which saw a period of new guidelines for team selection and strict adherence to discipline.

    India registered Test series wins at home against England (4-0), New Zealand (3-0) and Australia (2-1). But one year down the line, reports of rift between Kohli and Kumble surfaced. Apparently, the entire BCCI machinery failed to broker peace and Kumble left his post after India lost the Champions Trophy final to Pakistan last year.

    Shastri, who has already developed a great rapport with Kohli as team director before losing the job to Kumble, came right back in 2017 and the Indian dressing room relaxed. And by what we saw in England, maybe a bit too relaxed.

    It is true coaches at the international level are more man-managers than anything else. But it is also their job to be an authority figure, especially if the team is young, and step in if the side is losing its way.

    Unfortunately, Shastri does not come across as a person who will crack the whip and make the players pull up their socks. This Indian team begins and ends at Kohli, be it batting, leadership or team selection.

    Bhuvneshwar Kumar was dropped in South Africa for the second Test despite taking six wickets in the first and scoring runs.

    Then in the ongoing series in England, India went in one spinner short in Birmingham even as the wicket promised and ultimately provided help to spinners. In the second Test at Lord’s, they selected Kuldeep Yadav despite heavy rain and ended up one seamer short and were forced to hide two spinners – Ravi Ashwin and Kuldeep.

    Virat Kohli and former coach Anil Kumble.

    Virat Kohli and former coach Anil Kumble.

    What’s more, the Indian team took five days off before the start of the five-Test series in England. Not only that, the Indians had just one truncated warm-up game before the first Test. That the batsmen were clueless against the moving ball therefore didn’t come as a surprise.

    It’s all well and good to say the right things and help those around you relax. But as an international coach, it is important to be able to pull the handbrake when the team bus is going off the road. Shastri is not that guy.

    Someone like Kumble would not have allowed some of the selection decisions taken in the past year. And he would definitely not have given five days off before a five-Test series in England. The players need to be relaxed, but not at the expense of losing their edge or focus.

    Kohli is an exemplary player and motivator, but even he is susceptible to mistakes. It’s high time the BCCI realises that it is important to have another authoritative figure in the dressing room. The players, and Kohli, might feel uncomfortable but they have brought it upon themselves by losing inside two days in London.

    Recommended