There is conviction in his thoughts, an air of confidence and positivity around him, which he carries with pride. He can be your best friend off the cricket field and at the same time one of the best guides on it.

After being with the team for 18 months as the Director, Ravi Shastri returned as the Head Coach of the team ahead of India’s tour of Sri Lanka.

India registered an emphatic win over Sri Lanka, completing a historic 3-0 clean sweep in an away Test series.

The Indian dressing is exhibiting confidence for the tasks ahead after securing a thumping 4-0 lead in the ongoing ODI series.

In a freewheeling chat with BCCI.TV, Team India Head Coach reflects on the series win, upcoming opportunities and more….


Excerpts 

Sir, Congratulations on the series win. We get a sense that you have used the Sri Lanka tour as a drawing board for the upcoming challenges. Your thoughts.

For me, every tour is a challenge. The boys know that right from my stint earlier, I’m someone who respects all oppositions. And we like to live in the present and the job at present was to do the job the way we have done. We were striving for consistency and levels of competence, which will help us down the line and we have achieved that. There is a room for improvement. You know you always have to look to improve and I’m sure the boys are fully aware of that and they’ll be up for it.

We have seen extended training sessions and simultaneously heard the laughter in the dressing room, which makes the dressing room a happy place. What do you think makes Ravi Shastri the most desired coach by the players?

I wouldn’t say that I am the most desired coach. That is for the players to say. All I’ll say is that I like to keep things simple. I am a big switch on and switch off person. I’m a huge guy when it comes to work ethics and values. As far as the team is concerned, the trust factor that exists in the dressing room, the camaraderie between the players and the support staff, like Virat has mentioned, there is no senior or junior in the team because everyone’s a team player and everyone has to contribute.

We’ve seen that in our team. The most experienced player like the former Captain MS Dhoni, he is a wonderful team man. Any youngster can approach him at any stage, in the same capacity any youngster can approach the Captain or me as the Head Coach or anyone in the support staff. That kind of camaraderie is there. If you don’t have that kind of sharing, you will not have that kind of trust. That is paramount and like we said the dressing room for us is the place. What happens in the dressing room and what’s discussed there will always stay there.

One of the key highlights of this tour has been assigning specific roles to the players and helping them feel secure and wanted. Your thoughts.

I have always said that in a team game if you don’t know what your role is, and when I say team, look at it in any walk of life, why just the cricket field. If a person is designated a role and you will see different roles for different people in a team, if they do their roles to the best of their ability, you will see the team performing wonderfully well. But if a person doesn’t know his role, then there is no clarity of thought. There is confusion and you can’t get the best out of that man’s ability. Designating a role and helping him make sure that he does the job well; that is our job. Making him feel relaxed and in a state of mind where he can go and express himself without any fear. That is the role of the support staff.

Both as a cricketer and now as a coach, you love taking the bull by the horns. Don’t you?

I have always been that way. For me - what you see is what you’ll get. I always like to call a spade a spade and people who have played with me know me fully well. People who played under me when I was a Captain they know what to expect from me and same is the case with this team. The good thing with this team is, I’ve spent 18 months with them as the Director of the team when they were actually evolving. When I took over in England with the same support staff, it was a different team. Today it is a much more seasoned team. The guys have grown in the past two and a half years and it is for everyone to see when they play out in the middle.


The coming season will see India travelling to South Africa, England and Australia. How much of this calendar is a challenge and how much of it is an opportunity to do something that has never been done before?

I think it’s a great opportunity and a challenge. The reason I say it’s a combination of both is because if you see world cricket today, there is not a single team that travels well, especially when it comes to Test matches. If you see one team that has made strides in the last couple of years, it is India. We still go on raving and ranting about the overseas tours, I feel it as a challenge because no team travels well and this team has the opportunity to be that one team that can travel well. The onus is on us, when you put in the hard yards, it might happen and might not happen. But the opportunity is there.