Ravi Shastri has opened up on the criticism of the Indian cricket team in the aftermath of the Test and ODI defeat against South Africa.
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The Indian cricket team had a golden 2021 under Virat Kohli. They won a series in Australia and are on the cusp of winning in England. Although they lost the ICC World Test Championship 2021 final to New Zealand, they ended the year with a brilliant win against South Africa in Centurion. However, things went pear-shaped in 2022. India lost the Johannesburg and Cape Town Test as their quest to win a series for the first time in South Africa was thwarted. In the subsequent ODI series, India was whitewashed 3-0 under the captaincy of KL Rahul.
In between the losses, the sudden decision of Virat Kohli to relinquish the Test captaincy compounded matters. The miscommunication with the BCCI and Sourav Ganguly perhaps played a big role in distracting the team. However, former India cricket team coach Ravi Shastri has opened up on the current situation. Shastri’s tenure ended after the end of the ICC World T20 2021 in the UAE. India did not reach the playoff stages of the tournament.
“If you lose one series, you people start criticizing. You can’t win every game, there will be wins and losses. How can the standard go down suddenly? For five years, you have been the number one side in the world. When you have a win ratio of 65 percent over the last five years, what is there to worry about? What is there to worry about, our rival teams should worry,” Shastri told PTI on the sidelines of the Legends League Cricket tournament.
The South Africa tour saw Virat Kohli step down as the captain of the Indian cricket team from Tests. For the first time since 2012, Kohli will not be the captain of any IPL or national team. When asked about the decision of Kohli to step down as captain, Shastri stated that he did not want to get into gossip.
Read – Virat Kohli Suffers This Embarrassment in Paarl ODI against South Africa
“I took a break after seven years in the game. I have been part of the team and I do not wash dirty linen in public. The day I finished, it will be blank. I will not discuss any of the players on any public platforms,” Shastri told ANI.
Shastri also stated that he did not watch a single ball of the ODI series against South Africa. India lost the three ODIs by margins of 31 runs, seven wickets, and four runs. Thus, the tenure of Rahul Dravid has begun on a bad note. India’s next assignment is the ODI and T20I series against the West Indies. The next Test series will be against Sri Lanka, with Virat Kohli potentially playing his 100th Test either in Bangalore or Delhi.
