India's legendary all-rounder and former head coach Ravi Shastri is set to be honoured by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) with Lifetime Achievement Award on August 23 in Hyderabad.
Along with Shastri, Shubman Gill will receive the Cricketer of the Year award. Gill was exceptional in the ODI format scoring 1,584 runs from 29 innings at an average of 63.36 including five centuries and nine half-centuries.
The highlight was his double century in the format against New Zealand. He also became the fastest to 2,000 runs in ODIs breaking former South Africa batter Hashim Amla's record that stood for more than 12 years.
The BCCI awards will be held after a long break of more than four years. The event will be held in Hyderabad a few days ahead of the first Test of the five-match series against England. The ceremony is expected to have both India and England teams in attendance.
The 61-year-old has represented India in 80 Tests and 150 ODIs. He has 6,938 runs and 280 wickets in the international arena. The cricketer became a broadcaster. His best moments in the commentary box include Yuvraj Singh hitting six sixes in an over in the T20 World Cup 2007 and MS Dhoni’s winning six in the ODI World Cup 2011 final.
During Shastri's tenure as head coach, India won consecutive Test series on Australian soil, a feat never achieved before. However, with Virat Kohli at the helm of things, India could not win an ICC title. India qualified for the World Test Championship (WTC) 2021 final to New Zealand. In the 2019 World Cup, India qualified for the semifinal where they were knocked out by New Zealand.
With Shastri and Kohli forming a partnership, the Indian team developed a formidable pace bowling attack. Shastri made changes to India’s approach and backed them to take the pitch out of the equation.
“Our motto was to take pitches out of the equation. ‘Bhaad me gaya pitch’ (to hell with the pitches). Whether it’s Johannesburg or Melbourne or Mumbai, we want to take the pitch out of the equation. With the batting line-up we have, if they post big totals and then we have bowlers who can take 20 wickets - we can keep taking those world championship points we’re after,” he had said.
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