If one comes your way, give them three back: Ravi Shastri on how India dealt with sledging in Australia
India Today
Ravi Shastri spoke on a variety of issues with The Guardian, focusing on what a coach needs to do to make a team successful in all conditions.
Former India head coach Ravi Shastri shared his mantra of survival as a head coach, months after his contract came to an end with the Indian national team. Speaking to British publication The Guardian, Shastri reflected back on his most famous series wins till date - the Australia tour to impart knowledge about how attitude is everything when someone goes to play abroad.
"...it was also outlining how we want to play: to be aggressive and ruthless, to up the fitness levels, to get a group of fast bowlers to take 20 wickets overseas. And it was about attitude, especially when playing the Aussies. I told the boys if one single expletive comes your way, give them three back: two in our language and one in theirs," Shastri said.
Incidentally, India won both their long format tours in Australia under the tutelage of Shastri - once under the captaincy of Virat Kohli and another under the captaincy of Ajinkya Rahane.
Asked about the England head coach position by the British newspaper, Shastri laughed it off stating that he had done it for seven years, and was spent from the 300-day workload.
England are looking for a head coach who will be taking over their team that got drubbed 0-4 by Pat Cummins Australia. They have been face a huge amount of criticism over the structure of County Cricket and have had wholesale changes in the management set up, with former England captain and Sky Sports Pundit Rob Key taking over the set.
Shastri, in his interview said that Key needed to discuss issues with former Test captain Joe Root to understand how it all works. "Rob will have an adjustment period to understand the issues and will need to speak in detail with Joe Root for his experiences as Test captain. But in my 24 years [commentating], I did not miss a beat or a ball of Indian cricket."
"And he (Key) will have covered a huge amount too. So you're not lagging behind by an inch, you're abreast of what a team requires but also what other teams are doing," Shastri concluded on the matter.
