India have had more good days than bad with Ravi Shastri at the helm of affairs and, as his tenure of Team India’s head coach for nearly seven years, has come to an end.
India produced a clinical performance as they defeated Namibia by nine wickets in their last Super 12 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup in Dubai on Monday.
Interestingly, it was also Virat Kohli’s last match as the T20I captain as he had announced his decision to give up the T20I captaincy before the World Cup. He has also stepped down as captain of his IPL franchise, Royal Challengers Bangalore.
Outgoing Team India head coach Ravi Shastri said that Rohit Sharma is more than capable to take Indian cricket to greater heights in T20I cricket.
“In Rohit, we have got a capable guy, he has won so many IPL titles. He has been the vice-captain of this side for a long time,” Shastri told reporters.
India captain Virat Kohli, at the time of the toss, had all but confirmed Rohit Sharma as his successor for the national T20 captaincy, saying that the senior opener has been ‘overlooking things for a while now.’
Rohit Sharma is set to take over India’s leadership in T20I from the three-match series against New Zealand at home, beginning November 19.
Shastri believes that the split captaincy is the need of the hour due to bubble fatigue and the amount of cricket being played.
“Split captaincy is the need of the hour due to bubble fatigue, the amount of cricket played these days. Players need to be rotated. You don’t get to see your parents for 6 months,” said Shastri.
The Indian team was ‘mentally and physically drained’ during the T20 World Cup and didn’t even “try to win” as it wasn’t switched on during pressure situations in big games, outgoing head coach Ravi Shastri stunningly conceded before the side’s final match.
“I am mentally drained but I expect that at my age, but these guys are physically and mentally drained. Six months in a bubble…What we would have ideally liked was a bigger gap between the IPL and the T20 World Cup…(because) when the big games come, when pressure hits you, you are not that switched on as you should be.” Shastri said.
Shastri said that he doesn’t want to cite excuses but the team was not in the best shape to even try and win games here. “It’s not an excuse, we take defeat and we are not scared of losing. In trying to win, you will lose a game, but here we didn’t try to win because that X-factor was missing.”
On the sixth bowling option, Shastri said: “Earlier, we used to have guys in the top six, who were able to roll their arms in the middle overs. That is the area, where we need to work.”
