Half full or half empty: Why it’s always one or the other for Ravi Shastri

The face of the support staff is head coach Ravi Shastri.

The proverbial glass is always half full or half empty for Ravi Shastri, coach of the Indian men’s cricket team. Frankly, this has been the case since his playing days. You either love him for his ‘Champion of champions show’, at the end of which he drove his Audi around Australia’s MCG in 1985, or hate him for his infamous ‘tuk-tuk’ batting during the  1992 World Cup in Australia. Curiously, there is never a middle ground when it comes to the evaluation of Shastri the player or Shastri the coach.

However, if there is one quality that even his fiercest critics and haters would perhaps admire, it is his ability to shrug off criticism. Shastri also has the rare ability to laugh at himself and not take himself very seriously, a useful trait in this toxic-troll-heavy social media age. “I would say it’s banter. They do it to have fun at my expense. I will have milk and honey and you enjoy your drink,” Shastri laughed, commenting on the social media memes on him that often go viral, most recently after the series win against England.

No longer a laughing matter?

However, Shastri’s accomplishments as India coach, especially in Test cricket, are no longer a laughing matter. No captain or coach has won back- to-back series in Australia and that itself is enough to give Shastri a permanent place in Indian cricket’s Hall of Fame. Of course, Kohli and his teammates deserve most of the credit for a remarkable turnaround against England after being 0-1 down in the beginning of the series but Shastri needs to be applauded for making this team the most resilient one in Indian cricketing history. “Man management is the most important thing. More important is to understand human behaviour, their instincts, and mindsets. How someone reacts to failure, how someone reacts to success, when to talk, whom to talk to and whom not to talk to,” says Shastri.

Incidentally, Shastri has led India only once in a Test match, in 1988, beating a West Indies side captained by Viv Richards, thanks to Narendra Hirwani taking eight wickets in each innings on debut.

The greatest Indian coach ever?

With 36 Test wins under his belt, Kohli is now the third-most successful captain of all time in history. Shastri has been the head coach in 22 of those wins.  And, if you also include Ajinkya Rahane’s four wins as stand-in captain, it is a highly impressive 26 wins for Shastri. Yet, the proverbial glass may still look half-full or half empty depending on your perspective. As a coach, he is yet to win a Test series in England, South Africa and New Zealand, three of the SENA (South Africa, England, New Zealand, Australia) nations, where modern-subcontinental teams’ greatness is assessed in a truer sense.

If Kohli needs to win the final of the World Test Championship in England for his first-ever global trophy, the requirement for Shastri to validate his credential as a great coach is pretty much the same. And, of course, it needs to be followed by a Test series triumph against England in a five-match series after the WTC final.

Among modern cricket coaches, it may be tough to beat the record of former Australian coach John Buchanan, who was part of a staggering 70 wins out of 89 Tests that Australia played during his tenure (1999-2007). That record also includes 16 wins in a row not once but twice! However, Shastri has an opportunity to retire as the greatest Indian coach ever.

Numbers never reveal the real Shastri

An average of 36 in 80 matches doesn’t make Shastri a great batsman but his team doesn’t use the same prism. For this bunch of fighters, seven of Shastri’s centuries (out of 11) came outside India, which includes the tough tours of Pakistan, England and the West Indies. That is why a Rishabh Pant or a Washington Sundar can easily buy the coach’s wisdom, which may sound like hyperbole outside the dressing room, something the trolls won’t ever be able to comprehend.

Taking 151 wickets at an average of nearly 41 doesn’t make him a great spinner either, his numbers again invariably in that category of the proverbial half-full or half-empty glass. However, if his inputs can make Ravindra Jadeja a better all-rounder than him, or make Axar Patel a fine Test prospect for the future, or revive the all-round ability of Ashwin, what else do you want from a coach? “I didn't know what to expect when I first took up the job. But what I have learnt in the last six years, I haven't in the past 35 years (as a player and commentator),” says the 58 year old.

Establishment Man

There is an unmistakable presence of the coach every time Team India wins an important match or series. Equally, when it comes to defending the team or players, Ravi Shastri is (mostly) conspicuous by his absence (though he always defends captain Virat Kohli). Yet, he is still respected by the players and that perhaps matters more than him basking in the glory of his team’s achievements.

One can understand this looks odd since all the previous coaches, with the exception of Greg Chappell, preferred to be in the background. But then, Shastri being Shastri, couldn’t care less for such niceties. He is not shy of hogging the limelight when he thinks he should. Neither is he affected by the criticism that he is the quintessential Establishment Man. As long as he is getting the respect of players and the team is doing well, perhaps that does not matter.