UNFINISHED BUSINESS

A NEW BOOK ON INDIA’S QUEST TO DOMINATE WORLD CRICKET SUGGESTS THAT COACH RAVI SHASTRI MAY BE THE X-FACTOR IN THE NATIONAL SIDE’S RECENT—AND FUTURE—SUCCESS. EXCERPTS

- BORIA MAJUMDAR AND KUSHAN SARKAR

TO OPT FOR RAVINDRA JADEJA as Virat Kohli’s replacement (after the Adelaide Test in December 2020) was considered preposterous by a section of the pundits. A failed experiment, and it could have cost Ravi [Shastri] and [Bharat] Arun their jobs. 36 all out followed by some failed bold calls was the worst result for Indian cricket going into 2021.

“It was Ravi’s idea. First, Jadeja has hugely improved as a batsman in the last two years, and if you had seen him bat at the nets, you would know he was full of confidence and ready to go. In fact, if you look at his batting average in Test cricket over the last two years, it is the highest among the all-rounders playing the game at the moment,” said Arun.

In Adelaide, every Indian batsman had been a right-hander, something Shastri felt had helped the Australian bowlers settle into a nice rhythm. “Once they got it right, they could just keep hitting the same areas without having to do anything different. There was a degree of sameness in the Indian batting order, and for a bowling attack as good as one comprising Cummins, Hazelwood and Starc, it wasn’t much of an issue to do the same thing repeatedly. The fielding set-up could also remain the same and we could not make them think or do anything different,” argued Arun.