Ravi Shastri, the former head coach of India, has no regrets whatsoever that his comment about Kuldeep Yadav hurt Ravichandran Ashwin after India’s tour to Australia in 2018-19, where Kuldeep had secured India’s first-ever test series win down under with a 5-wicket haul in the Sydney test match.
At the end of the series, Ravi Shastri had said that Kuldeep was going to be India’s first-choice spinner in overseas test matches going ahead. While Ravichandran Ashwin didn’t react to it at that point in time, he recently said in an interview to ESPNcricinfo that he felt “crushed” by Shastri’s comment.
When Ravi Shastri was asked about his opinion on the matter yesterday while he was speaking in an event organised by Indian Express, the 59-year-old said it was not his job as a coach to “butter everyone’s toast”. He saw a young kid bowl wonderfully well in an overseas test match, and he thought it was only fair to give him his due.
According to Shastri, if what he said about Kuldeep hurt Ashwin, he is happy about it, because Ashwin made it a point to improve himself from there and eventually when he went to Australia a couple of years later, his performance was significantly better. And that’s what a player should do if a coach challenges him. The player should try and prove the coach wrong and shouldn’t “go home crying”.
Ashwin was clearly told he had to improve his fitness: Ravi Shastri
Ravi Shastri revealed that the team management had clear communication with Ashwin around 2018-19 that he needed to work on his fitness. It doesn’t matter if Ashwin didn’t like it at that stage because the truth had to be told. A head coach always has to state the facts.
Interestingly, after Shastri’s comment, Kuldeep Yadav didn’t play a single overseas test match for India and fell off the radar in white-ball cricket too. The left-arm wrist-spinner is currently not a part of India’s set-up in any of the three formats of the game. Ashwin, on the other hand, has not only solidified his position further as a test match bowler, he has now returned to India’s T20I team as well and is also in line for an ODI return.
However, on the England tour earlier this year, which was Shastri’s last assignment as India’s head coach in test match cricket, Ashwin was kept out of the playing XI in all 4 games.
