Ravi Shastri has no talent: Kapil Paaji's epic troll!

[coffee_rules]

Shastri as a player was a hack. Survived  with multiple chances given by mai-baaps like Gavaskar/Vengsarkar and the Mumbai lobby,
like equivalent to Jadeja.Gundappa Vishwanath as a talented strokemaker is having similar Test batting average as Shastri is a travesty. It shows how stat-padding worked in those days.

[Lord]

11 hours ago, BacktoCricaddict said:

Damning with praise.

 

Really, nothing he said there is incorrect.

 

But my contention is this - why are grit, mental toughness, , "khunnas" etc. - not considered talents? In my opinion, those are talents too. Shastri was talented in those aspects.

 

Talent is inborn. Grit/mental ability can be learnt

[diga]

13 hours ago, BacktoCricaddict said:

Damning with praise.

 

Really, nothing he said there is incorrect.

 

But my contention is this - why are grit, mental toughness, , "khunnas" etc. - not considered talents? In my opinion, those are talents too. Shastri was talented in those aspects.

 

 

Just watch this interview of Ravi Shastri... was quite a confident young man even in his 20s

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0hQpptz0Wo

 

[Gollum]

14 hours ago, BacktoCricaddict said:

Damning with praise.

 

Really, nothing he said there is incorrect.

 

But my contention is this - why are grit, mental toughness, , "khunnas" etc. - not considered talents? In my opinion, those are talents too. Shastri was talented in those aspects.

Kasparov once said ability to work hard was his greatest talent. Fischer said something similar. 

[Suhaan]

On 1/29/2025 at 9:33 AM, Texan said:

 

He has only 2 shots 

 

Paaji at his best! 

It is quite old conversation

[Stan AF]

Well shasthri has some commentating talent..

[Texan]

6 hours ago, Suhaan said:

It is quite old conversation

It's possible. He has said it a few times before in different ways.

[Muloghonto]

On 1/29/2025 at 1:22 PM, coffee_rules said:

Shastri as a player was a hack. Survived  with multiple chances given by mai-baaps like Gavaskar/Vengsarkar and the Mumbai lobby,
like equivalent to Jadeja.Gundappa Vishwanath as a talented strokemaker is having similar Test batting average as Shastri is a travesty. It shows how stat-padding worked in those days.

 

Nah, Sastri wasnt a hack, he was pretty much the bread and butter journeyman player of the 70s and 80s mould batter : rock solid defence with 1-3 scoring shots and thats pretty much it. If u dont bowl where he can score, he doesnt score, nor does he get out - these kinda doughty batsmen, who also sometimes moonlit as allrounders - were the stock player in the old days. And Sastri was quite good at it actually. He was also quite handly with the ball and though not a true allrounder with it, was more than decent to fill for a 5th bowler role without bunging the show.
Remember, a 5th bowler who just keeps it tight, takes 2-3 wickets per game and doesnt average way worse than 40 is actually quite a good bowler to have just to give more efficiency in rotating your four strike bowlers as an option and when it comes in the form of Sastri - a guy good enough to bat in the team's middle order on his own merit on most days - its actually quite a well earned spot in the teams of the 60s-90s for most test nations.

 

Sir Jaddu is a significantly better cricketer than Sastri - for one, he is bhagwaan level fielder compared to Sastri and pretty much every Indian fielder ever in the team before 1990 not named Kapil & Azharuddin. For two, Sir Jaddu is a far better bowler than Sastri. Sastri was basically a bit better Tendulkar with the ball. Jaddu is a genuine bona fide left arm spin great.

 

Their batting is where they are the most similar/close at and both have similar style, though Jaddu being a modern player is capable of more 'outbursts' than Sastri ever was but i would say overall, Sastri was a better top order batter than Jaddu, though not by much imo.

 

[Muloghonto]

15 hours ago, Suhaan said:

It is quite old conversation

Paaji is totally correct in his thinking - you need a meat and potatoes hard worker guy with limited talent in the team to keep the team honest and its surprising how often those guys show up and do well, even in teams that do great.

[maniac]

A Ravi Shastri type of player would never make it to the Indian side if he wasn’t from Mumbai. As Mulo said above your typical journeyman cricketer.

 

usually there is  comparison between Shastri and Jadeja, as average or limited Jadeja’s skills were; he was an exceptional athlete and fielder since his young days which gave him that extra backing. 
 

Shastri was very average every which way. He had a good brain for the game though.

Edited January 31 by maniac

[cricspirit]

On 1/29/2025 at 3:22 PM, coffee_rules said:

Shastri as a player was a hack. Survived  with multiple chances given by mai-baaps like Gavaskar/Vengsarkar and the Mumbai lobby,
like equivalent to Jadeja.Gundappa Vishwanath as a talented strokemaker is having similar Test batting average as Shastri is a travesty. It shows how stat-padding worked in those days.

 

Jadeja and Shastri are not equivalent and I have seen both play. 

 

Just on bowling.

 

80 matches for both at this point. Ravi comes out with 151 test wickets with 40 average and 100 plus strike rate. Jadeja more than double wickets at 323 wickets achieved with a 24 average and strike rate of 57.

 

If Jadeja did nothing else with his batting and fielding he would still sit as a great spin bowler. People have just made up their mind that Jadeja is average/boring/ useless/got many chances and stuff like that. He worked hard without much showmanship and earned his place. People always are influenced by his T20 utility for India and marginalize his test contribution. 

 

Guy is one of the most accurate and rated as hard to play by cricketers in test cricket. Remained the top allrounder for a long time, top 10 bowling list for a long time even topping the ratings. Still sits at 10 on bowling list.

 

Jadeja is a boring batter, agreed but He is no hack. Proper test cricketer and a very good one at that.

 

[coffee_rules]

21 minutes ago, cricspirit said:

 

Jadeja and Shastri are not equivalent and I have seen both play. 

 

Just on bowling.

 

80 matches for both at this point. Ravi comes out with 151 test wickets with 40 average and 100 plus strike rate. Jadeja more than double wickets at 323 wickets achieved with a 24 average and strike rate of 57.

 

If Jadeja did nothing else with his batting and fielding he would still sit as a great spin bowler. People have just made up their mind that Jadeja is average/boring/ useless/got many chances and stuff like that. He worked hard without much showmanship and earned his place. People always are influenced by his T20 utility for India and marginalize his test contribution. 

 

Guy is one of the most accurate and rated as hard to play by cricketers in test cricket. Remained the top allrounder for a long time, top 10 bowling list for a long time even topping the ratings. Still sits at 10 on bowling list.

 

Jadeja is a boring batter, agreed but He is no hack. Proper test cricketer and a very good one at that.

 

I was comparing on the chances given to them. They got immense chances to improve their craft. Like Ishant Sharma, although talented was given so many chances to play even 100 tests.  Not many players are that lucky. Some say that for Dravid too, not as talented as Sachin, but very stoic and determined to do better.  

[cricspirit]

1 minute ago, coffee_rules said:

I was comparing on the chances given to them. They got immense chances to improve their craft. Like Ishant Sharma, although talented was given so many chances to play even 100 tests.  Not many players are that lucky. Some say that for Dravid too, not as talented as Sachin, but very stoic and determined to do better.  

 

Come on now. Not being as talented as Sachin is a thing. You can count on fingers how many batters born ever are more talented than Sachin. Being less than Sachin does not mean not talented. Dravid was talented in his own way with discipline to go with ti. Sachin was very disciplined too.

 

Jadeja got chances because he performed.  

 

His ranking rose pretty quickly by his 10th match and stayed there all through his career. check this.

 

 

 

He was good out of the gate in test cricket.  The backing was justified. Got many chances without performing is a myth because of T20. Not in test cricket.

 

look -

 

 

Those are the first 5 years of his bowling career. He was not just playing without performing. Got going out of the gate and kept performing all the way till now. His wicket taking reduced over the last 5 years but his batting made up for that with numerous rescue acts.

 

 

[cricspirit]

1 minute ago, cricspirit said:

 

Come on now. Not being as talented as Sachin is a thing. You can count on fingers how many batters born ever are more talented than Sachin. Being less than Sachin does not mean not talented. Dravid was talented in his own way with discipline to go with ti. Sachin was very disciplined too.

 

Jadeja got chances because he performed.  

 

His ranking rose pretty quickly by his 10th match and stayed there all through his career. check this.

 

 

 

He was good out of the gate in test cricket.  The backing was justified. Got many chances without performing is a myth because of T20. Not in test cricket.

 

look -

 

 

Those are the first 5 years of his bowling career. He was not just playing without performing. Got going out of the gate and kept performing all the way till now. His wicket taking reduced over the last 5 years but his batting made up for that with numerous rescue acts.

 

 

 

 

If Jadeja would not have performed the way he has over his entire test career, he would not be here. He is not a market making superstar. He is another of the scapegoats ready to be dropped when India loses. Just could not be left out with his all round performances. 

 

 

[First class]

On 1/29/2025 at 12:26 AM, Texan said:

Even that poor bowler is wondering

I heard the poor bowler was suicidal due to the shame he felt.