Former India captain Ravi Shastri has made it clear he will call the shots during the one-day leg of India’s tour of England as the newly appointed team director, but insisted he has not replaced current head coach Duncan Fletcher.
The Indian cricket board decided to bring in Shastri along with the three Indian assistants – Sanjay Bangar (batting), Bharat Arun (bowling) and Ramakrishnan Sridhar (fielding) – while giving fielding coach Trevor Penney and bowling coach Joe Dawes a ‘break’. Fletcher, ostensibly, still will discharge his duties.
“My role is to oversee everything. All of them report to me,” Shastri told ESPNcricinfo. “He [Fletcher] stays as the head coach. And these two (Bangar and Arun) will be his assistants. I am there to oversee.”
After the appointment, Shastri held a two-hour discussion with captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Fletcher to make plans for the five-match ODI series which starts in Bristol on Monday.
Shastri made it apparent that he was pained by the lack of fight the team showed in the Test series despite taking an early lead after the Lord’s win.
“On this tour I saw India’s greatest ever overseas win (at Lord’s). I know it because I have never seen a track like that and with this kind of inexperienced side, for them to pull it off… Then I also saw some spineless cricket over the last three Tests matches. People would have accepted 3-1 (result) if there was a little more fight.”
What irked Shastri even more was that mistakes were being repeated innings after innings, especially by the batsmen.
“My main disappointment was players at times making same mistake,” the 52-year-old cricketer turned commentator said. “Everyone makes a mistake, but you want to try something different.”
The former opener, in his regular newspaper column, had lambasted the Indian team after the defeat at The Oval.
He had trained his guns at the ‘glam boys’ and wanted to see if they ‘are ready for penance’. Shastri explained he was talking about top order batsmen Virat Kohli and Cheteshwar Pujara, who failed spectacularly.
“I was hard on Pujara and Kohli specifically because they came in with big reputations. And they have been brought down to earth with their techniques being found out against the moving ball.
“And there is nothing wrong in that, it has happened to the biggest players. Rahul Dravid in 1999 in Australia – he could not get a run. It has happened to Sunny (Gavaskar) in 1981 in Australia. Now the true test of their character will be how they bounce back. I have absolutely no doubt that not only will they bounce back, they will excel very soon.”
This will be Shastri’s second stint in charge of the Indian team. He was asked to handle the side after the 2007 World Cup defeat.
