India head coach Ravi Shastri does not see any reason to press the panic button after the team’s shocking Test and ODI series loss to an under-strength South Africa as he believes it is a “temporary phase” and the side will tide over it soon. In the backdrop of Virat Kohli’s departure as captain from all formats, India, under stand-in skipper KL Rahul, were blanked 0-3 in the ODIs to cap a forgettable tour to South Africa.
India had earlier suffered back-to-back defeats in Wanderers and Cape Town to lose the Test series 1-2. At the end of that series, Kohli stepped down from captaincy in the longest format, marking the end of an era in Indian cricket.
“If you lose one series, you people start criticising… You can’t win every game, there will be wins and losses,” Shastri, who ended his tenure after the T20 World Cup in UAE last year, told PTI on the sidelines of the ongoing Legends League Cricket.
The ODI series defeat in South Africa was their first after Kohli was sacked as skipper in the 50-over format in December last year.
Shastri said he did not follow a single ball of the South Africa series but refused to believe that the standard has dropped.
“How can the standard go down suddenly? For five years, you have been number one side in the world,” he asserted.
