The cricketing fraternity has seen another side of him from July 2014 when he decided to wear the India Team Director’s cap to oversee the coaching staff’s role from the ODI series.
Recently he was in the vanguard of the brigade, which included Test captain Virat Kohli and off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin, which was quite strident about defending the spin-friendly pitches designed for the home series against South Africa. He went to the extent of saying that India would even play four spinners before the start of the four Test series.
In this first part of the interview, Shastri talks at length about the team’s spin department after touching upon the potential of Virat Kohli’s Test team.
Excerpts:
Does Kohli’s team have the potential to give Indian cricket the 1971 moments, when Ajit Wadekar’s team scored a trailblazing and historical first Test series wins in the West Indies and in England ? Just like India winning the World Cups (1983 & 2011), World Championship of Cricket (1985) and World T20 (2007).
Absolutely. I have no doubt. His team has already done enough, which any of the 1971 Indian teams would be proud of. This team is fully capable of those moments.
This team first beat Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka after 22 years and then South Africa, a team that had not lost overseas for nearly ten years. These are real achievements.
Wadekar fielded three or four spinners to shock the West Indies (Port of Spain) and England (The Oval). Will this Indian team ever pick two or more in the XI?
If the spinners provide the right balance, then they will be played.
It also depends on the conditions.
If the quality of the spinner is as good as Ravichandran Ashwin, he will play everywhere.
Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja have combined well in two home Test series against Australia two years ago (53 wickets) and now against South Africa (54 wickets).
Have they done enough to be in the XI at any given point in time in the future for home and away series?
Why not? What was great to see about Jadeja was that, after he was dropped from the side, he took time to reflect, understand his own game and come up with the goods.
What was very important to me was his batting. His innings was very crucial in almost every Test match against South Africa. If he can bat like that and continue to improve, then you have an all-rounder you would want to play anywhere because he keeps the balance of the side going.
Do you see in him (Jadeja) the potential to shape up in the mould of a Vinoo Mankad, who was a canny left-arm spinner, or like you? Salim Durani did not do justice to his batting talent. And Yuvraj Singh remained an under achiever
Jadeja has the potential. He is still young. I think there are areas of his batting that he can work on.
He is a thinking cricketer and has a lot of natural talent. If one looks at his innings that I mentioned at every given time, India was in a spot of bother. And he came up with the 30s and 20s which showed that there has been a massive improvement in the temperament aspect of his batting.
I still feel he has got everything as a bowler. He’s accurate and at the batsmen all the time.
Durani has talked about the lack of guile.
The problem for a bowler these days is that there are three formats and not easy to bowl the same in all formats. Flighting the ball is a crucial thing but the other thing is that the formats are changing quickly in a series. If he can develop some more guile, he will be wonderful.
You talked about Ashwin’s quality, but in spite of being the leading spinner, he did not play in all the Tests in South Africa, England and Australia and none in New Zealand. Should a spinner of his quality be dissected every innings of a Test match? It gave an impression that the team management and captain were not convinced of his abilities last year
Not at all. He did not play the first Test at Adelaide (2014) because he had work to do. The fact that he was prepared to go back to the basics, work his backside off and go through the grind is a tribute to the amount of work ethic he was willing to put in. And it paid off.
Was he not willing to do this before?
I don’t know as I was not part of the team (before the ODI series in England in 2014). I was part of the team that happened exactly a year ago in Australia.
Would you say Indian cricket is truly blessed with these two spinners?
Absolutely. They complement each other beautifully. They are different bowlers but if you are a batsman out there, you will realise that they are at you all the time. And in conditions where there is some assistance, they can be a handful as South Africa found out.
Wrist spinner Amit Mishra has acquitted himself when given his due. He has not been chosen for 54 Test matches after he made his debut. And whenever he has played, India has won 61 per cent of the Tests. Your views.
Mishra has really worked hard and I like that. He is very much in the picture when it comes to playing Tests. I have no doubt about that. I still feel there is a lot of cricket left in him.
