Shastri backs ‘all-time great’ Dhoni to succeed during Proteas series

Team India director Ravi Shastri on Friday heaped praise on Mahendra Singh Dhoni, as he addressed the media in Bengaluru.

Ravi said, You have got to respect the fact they are the No. 1 team in the world. They emerged triumphant in a triangular series with Australia A and South Africa A, beating the fancied Australians in the final. Better than any other side in world cricket. And so we what we are up against.

The Indian team is now preparing themselves for the big test against the visiting South African side with their ongoing week-long preparatory camp at the M Chinnaswamy stadium, Bangalore. With Dhoni returning to the helm of the team for the limited overs leg of the South Africa series, Shastri sees no reason why having two captains will disrupt the continuity of the team. South Africa play three T20 Internationals in the series for Mahatma Gandhi-Nelsan Mandela trophy with the first game to be staged at Dharmashala on October 2. The side includes Ravindra Jadeja, the left-arm spinning allrounder whose last Test for India was in August 2014 in England, Varun Aaron and Abhimanyu Mithun among the bowlers looking for a way back to national colours, and young talent that has done well in domestic cricket such as Shreyas Iyer, Jayant Yadav and Shreyas Gopal. “It’s no problem at all”, said Shastri before the Indian team hit the nets on Friday. You are talking of a legend, one of the all-time greats of world cricket.

“Everything fits into place automatically”. They play well in overseas conditions. “What else do you want?” “Don’t you think it is about time?” countered the team director.

“He has done the dirty work for the last donkey’s years”. More recently, Gurkeerat Singh Mann’s consistently brilliant showing under pressure has landed him a spot in the One-Day global side while S Aravind finds himself in the Twenty20 worldwide side. “As far as the decision is concerned, don’t worry about Mississippi. He will decide on the day”.

“Nobody is in a comfort zone. Test captain Virat Kohli has proved to be a quick learner and an aggressive skipper who led India to a rare series victory against Sri Lanka earlier this month. You have to respect the conditions. “You take it one series at a time”, Shastri said on the sidelines of Team India’s camp in Bengaluru. You got to respect the conditions, play to the conditions and play to the opposition. “It’s very important you study the opposition you are up against, and then decide what is the best combination for your team”. “The fact that he is giving so much time just after finishing his cricket, for a young team, I think it is brilliant”. “For me, the most successful tour was that of Australia”. The result was 2-0 down. Then we had a great World Cup, but lessons learnt in that tour was hard lessons. If a strategy doesn’t work, they have shown they are not too proud to drop it. Yet it did seem in Sri Lanka – especially when they played five bowlers on a bowler-friendly pitch in Galle and under-bowled the fifth bowler – that they were running the risk of being too set with that particular combination.

India will need all their champions because they will be hosting a champion side. Shastri said he had taken up the Team Director’s assignment as a challenge and a responsibility and he wants the team to maintain consistency over the next nine months. All series, whether small or big is impmortant for me. “So, nothing changes”, he said.

“I treat it as a challenge”, Shastri said. So, this is no exception.

“This is a young team, very passionate and wanting to learn”. You have seen their performances in all formats of the game over the last one year.

Asked if all this is to keep players from getting too comfortable, Shastri said: “It is not comfort zone”.