What did Ravi Shastri say about India’s preparation ahead of the second Test?

???????????????????????????????
Indian cricket team coach Ravi Shastri with captain Virat Kohli. Image Source: XtraTime

Internet Desk: Ravi Shastri has started his campaign as a coach of the Indian cricket team with a bang as the World No.1 side registered an emphatic win over Sri Lanka in the first Test at Galle last Saturday. Just ahead of the second Test, which will start from this Thursday Shastri met the press this Tuesday. According to Shastri his job is to keep the players mentally ready for the matches and fine tuning their technique and approach.

“I have been manager, director, now I am head coach – it’s the same role. Absolutely the same role, so there is nothing that I have to change. The fact that you played the game and watched the game for long periods of time without a break does help. So you know what’s contemporary and what’s happening at the moment and you relate with people in that fashion.

“I don’t think at this level coaching is needed. At this level, it is all about fine tuning and getting the blokes in good mental space to go out and play the game. They know they have reached here because they are good. At times you might need to just fine tune them a bit because the amount of cricket that’s being played you might just get into the odd bad habit without you realizing it,” he said.

When Shastri worked with the Indian team as a team director, India was a young side with a newly appointed captain and now there are a lot of match winners in this side. There are a lot of youngsters waiting to get a chance as well. The present India coach is very happy to see them.

“This team has been with each other for two years and they are much more experienced now. They have already done things that a lot of Indian teams and a lot of big names couldn’t do in their careers. Like to win a series here (in Sri Lanka) after 20 years.

“This team is used to doing things that a lot of other teams haven’t done and that too overseas. Forget Australia, I am not even touching Australia tour, so when you say overseas like South Africa, England, it is a lot of tough cricket coming up and I see it as an opportunity. I am very positive here that this team can do things that probably no other Indian team has done.

According to Shastri the team is going on the right path. The Men in Blue reached the final of the ICC Champions Trophy where they lose to arch-rivals Pakistan. Everything is covered, and as Shastri put it, all he had to do was press the play button again.

“For me, I don’t carry any baggage. For me, it was like walking into the dressing room as I had left it. Nothing had changed and no special buttons I had to press. It was just that one play button and off you went. The boys were fantastic in the last Test match but what we are striving for is improvement. There are still areas to improve from the last game. And we have discussed that and what we want from this team as a unit collectively is consistency. Not just where you are good in one game and totally the opposite in the other. Your levels of consistency have to be high.”

While talking about Virat Kohli, Shastri told that Virat has become more mature as captain after he took the job from MS Dhoni in 2015.

“I can see a very big difference from when he captained in his first Test match to what he is now. I was there in Adelaide when he captained in his first Test match and he is 27-28 Test matches old now as captain. You can see a big difference. You can see in the body language and he has matured, and he will continue to mature and learn. For his age, he has done a lot. Again, there are signs there that he can be right up there with the very best.”