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Indian Test team’s heartbreaking 2-1 defeat against South Africa in the three-match Test series had raised multiple questions about the team’s performance and the team selection as well. Indian batsmen- Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane’s dismal show in the Test series made matters worse as the two batsmen face a big question mark regarding their place in the Test team.
Many experts and former cricketers have spoken on this matter and have said that the time has come to drop these two batsmen and focus on batsmen like Shreyas Iyer and Hanuma Vihari.
Shastri's words
In a situation like this, former India head coach Ravi Shastri has opened up on this topic. While talking to Sports Tak the former Indian team coach said that both Pujara and Rahane have been two “very important players” for him and “for the success of the team”; when he was the coach of the Indian cricket team.
“I haven’t seen much of Pujara and Rahane lately but when I was the coach these were very important players for me and for the success of the team. I always believed in current form and I could gauge that in the nets - the body language of the player, how his feet are moving, what is his state of mind. For me scorebook wasn’t important,” Shastri told Sports Tak in an exclusive interview in Oman where the Howzat Legends League Cricket tournament is currently being played.
2017 incident
While talking about the team selection and giving chance to a particular player, Shastri recalled an incident that took place back in
2017.
"In 2017 when I came back, I took over from Anil Kumble. He had a plan to have some continuity for the opening position. One of the openers was Murali Vijay or KL Rahul and with them there was Abhinav Mukund and there was Shikhar Dhawan too. It was my second innings when we went to Sri Lanka. He (Shikhar) got to bat at no.6, top order failed and he got 25-30.
"So, I went up to Virat and told him we should have him opening the innings but Virat told me that no because we had decided something else. Next day I saw him in the nets and I said I will have to say something because Shikhar has to be there in the team. Very same game he scored 190-odd runs and he went on to play for next three years.
“So Dravid has to decide if he wants to persist with them or if there are any players to replace these experienced players,” recalled the 59-year-old former India head coach.
