Ravi Shastri Interview 2022

[SRT100]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LijsfhmKLA

 

 

I actually do respect his stance here, the Indian team dressing room and what is discussed needs to be a sanctuary and so he cannot voice anything publicly.

 

One huge mistake when he talked about SRT needing 6 WC to win one and mentioning how Ganguly, Laxman, Jumbo and Dravid not winning any is that they only had one chance every 4 years for the peak periods of their career. Im not excusing their performances, but its a fact that during their time, there was not the multiple ICC tournaments as it is today. Not to mention, India fielded the best team during those times. Its not like this player  or that player missed out that could have made a difference, they genuinely took the best team that India could field be it batting or bowling, so much so that Dravid played as wicketkeeper in the 2003 WC.

 

Compare that to today, when there is at least 3 players that should be playing in all three formats, that are not picked in each team.

 

In the last ~15 years, there has been multiple ICC tournaments take place, yet India has managed to only achieve one, is a collective failure. There is no question about that.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

@express bowling@Vijy@raki05

 

 

[Vijy]

1 hour ago, SRT100 said:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LijsfhmKLA

 

 

I actually do respect his stance here, the Indian team dressing room and what is discussed needs to be a sanctuary and so he cannot voice anything publicly.

 

One huge mistake when he talked about SRT needing 6 WC to win one and mentioning how Ganguly, Laxman, Jumbo and Dravid not winning any is that they only had one chance every 4 years for the peak periods of their career. Im not excusing their performances, but its a fact that during their time, there was not the multiple ICC tournaments as it is today. Not to mention, India fielded the best team during those times. Its not like this player  or that player missed out that could have made a difference, they genuinely took the best team that India could field be it batting or bowling, so much so that Dravid played as wicketkeeper in the 2003 WC.

 

Compare that to today, when there is at least 3 players that should be playing in all three formats, that are not picked in each team.

 

In the last ~15 years, there has been multiple ICC tournaments take place, yet India has managed to only achieve one, is a collective failure. There is no question about that.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

@express bowling@Vijy@raki05

 

 

haven't seen the interview, but it's not true that "they genuinely took the best team that India could field". I will give just a few examples starting from 1999 WC since it's the first with Drav-Gang-SRT playing:

 

'99 WC: although they may not have played games, I remember feeling frustration about selection about khurasiya and ramesh (latter was really a test player)

'03 WC: not only did we select Dinesh Mongia in squad, but also play him in most matches. his bowling was mostly not needed and his batting was so-so, so it would have been much better to have either had a  pure batter or a pseudo-AR (like Sir Aggy)

'07 WC: lots of mistakes in getting team order right, even if selection was okay

[raki05]

4 hours ago, SRT100 said:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LijsfhmKLA

 

 

I actually do respect his stance here, the Indian team dressing room and what is discussed needs to be a sanctuary and so he cannot voice anything publicly.

 

One huge mistake when he talked about SRT needing 6 WC to win one and mentioning how Ganguly, Laxman, Jumbo and Dravid not winning any is that they only had one chance every 4 years for the peak periods of their career. Im not excusing their performances, but its a fact that during their time, there was not the multiple ICC tournaments as it is today. Not to mention, India fielded the best team during those times. Its not like this player  or that player missed out that could have made a difference, they genuinely took the best team that India could field be it batting or bowling, so much so that Dravid played as wicketkeeper in the 2003 WC.

 

Compare that to today, when there is at least 3 players that should be playing in all three formats, that are not picked in each team.

 

In the last ~15 years, there has been multiple ICC tournaments take place, yet India has managed to only achieve one, is a collective failure. There is no question about that.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

@express bowling@Vijy@raki05

 

 

Completely agree those players used to have only one icc trophy in 4-5 years . Champions trophy was also not that regular, however India has already shared one with SL that too due to rain otherwise India would have sure shot won it with the kind of form Sehwag was. There use to be few selection mistake then as well but we did not have large talent pool like today. Difference between player in team and one outside squad was huge during those time there were not many option that's the reason test players like Ramesh got a chance in absence of Sachin in 99 wc for few matches we dint have many choices there. Only thing wrong was Mongia selection ahead of Yuvi in 2003 final but i think it's more to do with Yuvi injury i suppose. Otherwise whom you play in absence of main xi were not going to make huge difference as they were all mostly mediocre. Compare it with today where senior are holding top 3 position since eternity and stats padding. There are so many talented player who doesn't even get chance in useless biletral to showcase their talent , useless senior are not ready to take backseat and change their batting order and entire ecosystem is there to protect their interest. Since 2013 we have played 8-9 icc tournament and we have zero trophy to showcase. 

[sandeep]

3 hours ago, Vijy said:

'03 WC: not only did we select Dinesh Mongia in squad, but also play him in most matches. his bowling was mostly not needed and his batting was so-so, so it would have been much better to have either had a  pure batter or a pseudo-AR (like Sir Aggy)

laxman was such a class bat and was an Aussie killer on his day, playing mongia over him because of his 169 against Zimbabwe was silly...

[Vijy]

Just now, sandeep said:

laxman was such a class bat and was an Aussie killer on his day, playing mongia over him because of his 169 against Zimbabwe was silly...

true, and the overall gain from bowling + fielding is not much. VVS was a very good close-in fielder, which is useful in its own way. And although I do think mongia's left arm darts were underused and underrated, the simple fact is that they were not needed with sehwag, gangu, SRT, and Yuvi. if needed, 5th part-timer could have been kaif and VVS could have played

[sandeep]

1 hour ago, Vijy said:

true, and the overall gain from bowling + fielding is not much. VVS was a very good close-in fielder, which is useful in its own way. And although I do think mongia's left arm darts were underused and underrated, the simple fact is that they were not needed with sehwag, gangu, SRT, and Yuvi. if needed, 5th part-timer could have been kaif and VVS could have played

 

I've made my peace with the 2003 WC.  Took a while though.  Bottomline is that was a machine of an Aus team.  And they beat us batting first and second -proper asskicking both ways.  They deserved to win that WC, we didn't.  And no amount of tweaking selection would have changed that fact.  

 

Hurt like a bitch for a while though.  Genuine PTSD from Ponting's murderous assault in the 2nd half.  'hated' him forever for it.  

[R!TTER]

5 hours ago, Vijy said:

Dinesh Mongia in squad,

DM had the best record in the top order after SRT/Ganguly & Sehwag - his selection (based on numbers) was justified. Agarkar would have to come in for either Srinath or Harbhajan. Also no team combo or World XI would beat the best ODI side ever in the finals! Oz were playing on another level, it would take peak SRT/Yuvraj/Kohli/MS & a few others to get even close to that target, our only chance to win it was by batting first & even that was less than 1% realistically speaking.

[Jay]

11 minutes ago, sandeep said:

 

I've made my peace with the 2003 WC.  Took a while though.  Bottomline is that was a machine of an Aus team.  And they beat us batting first and second -proper asskicking both ways.  They deserved to win that WC, we didn't.  And no amount of tweaking selection would have changed that fact.  

 

Hurt like a bitch for a while though.  Genuine PTSD from Ponting's murderous assault in the 2nd half.  'hated' him forever for it.  

Yep. They were just too good for any odi team that year tbh. We were very good ourselves. Clear number 2 in the world at the time but yes there was a gap between us and Aussies of 2003. 

 

We just dint have the batting to compete. Bowling actually did well except vs Aussies in the final. 

 

Sachin buckled under pressure as always in LOI. 

We dint have power hitters. Just accumulators barring Sehwag. 

[Jay]

2 minutes ago, R!TTER said:

DM had the best record in the top order after SRT/Ganguly & Sehwag - his selection (based on numbers) was justified. Agarkar would have to come in for either Srinath or Harbhajan. Also no team combo or World XI would beat the best ODI side ever in the finals! Oz were playing on another level, it would take peak SRT/Yuvraj/Kohli/MS & a few others to get even close to that target, our only chance to win it was by batting first & even that was less than 1% realistically speaking.

I agree but would they be able to achieve those feats in drs era with no ball umpiring and unbiased umpiring? 

In tests I certainly don't think so. They cheated alot.

 

Still think for those conditions in Australia and s.africa, the Aussie team of 2015 had the best combo ever. 

[R!TTER]

Just now, Jay said:

Sachin buckled under pressure as always in LOI. 

What? He tried to bring down the RR just like vs Pak, there was no other way to win! Even with him at one end we'd need someone matching SRT at the other, that was never going to happen. His failure in the WC final is the most overpublicized failure - we were never gonna win that game after conceding 359, it was the bowlers that lost us the game!

[R!TTER]

1 minute ago, Jay said:

Aussie team of 2015 had the best combo ever. 

Probably but they also had the best conditions & PP rules in their favor, the rules were changed immediately after that WC & changed the game a lot!

[Insidious]

11 minutes ago, Jay said:

Yep. They were just too good for any odi team that year tbh. We were very good ourselves. Clear number 2 in the world at the time but yes there was a gap between us and Aussies of 2003. 

 

We just dint have the batting to compete. Bowling actually did well except vs Aussies in the final. 

 

Sachin buckled under pressure as always in LOI. 

We dint have power hitters. Just accumulators barring Sehwag. 

Yuvraj was there. He was not an accumulator.

[Vijy]

10 hours ago, R!TTER said:

DM had the best record in the top order after SRT/Ganguly & Sehwag - his selection (based on numbers) was justified. Agarkar would have to come in for either Srinath or Harbhajan. Also no team combo or World XI would beat the best ODI side ever in the finals! Oz were playing on another level, it would take peak SRT/Yuvraj/Kohli/MS & a few others to get even close to that target, our only chance to win it was by batting first & even that was less than 1% realistically speaking.

mongia (dinesh) was not selected for top order. top 6 was viru, sachu, gangu (rotate with kaifu), rahu, yuvu, kaifu, and dinu. mongia was no. 7. no point in having him at no. 7 since he wasn't a raina-type of hitter at 7. as I wrote, muddled selection

 

we would have lost against Oz every time. however, the post regarding mongia was in connection with an earlier post about how team selections back then made sense. I was discussing mongia's role in WC as a whole, not just final

Edited February 4, 2022 by Vijy