Shastri’s silver lining in time of gloom

For a young and coachless Test side, director Ravi Shastri has become the go-to man in the Indian dressing room.

The last 48 hours or so in Sri Lanka must have felt like being caught in the pre-interval period of a Hollywood horror movie for the Indian team. It’s generally, after all, the part during which, the protagonists keep slipping deeper and deeper into the grip of evil with every step they take. And no matter where they go or what they do, they remain besieged by the unremitting terror.

It had all seemed so promising and spirited at the start—like is the case with those movies—as Virat Kohli & Co dominated the first two-and-a-half days of the first Test. Then commenced their haunting, starting with Dinesh Chandimal’s rasping stroke-play and then Rangana Herath’s whirring spin. The gloomy, portentous clouds have hardly lifted ever since.

Take Monday. The Indians were all set to leave for practice at 4 pm. Before long there was thunder to be heard, and lightning to be seen. Then came the heavy showers. And the steady volley ensured that the Indians had to spend their day confined to the hotel. Ravi Shastri doesn’t seem the sorts who’d believe in bad omens. But just 15 minutes before he was scheduled to address the media, a BCCI press release revealed that the Shikhar Dhawan was flying back home due to a hairline fracture in his right hand. Just like that India had lost their only in-form opener on tour—Murali Vijay’s still recovering from his hamstring strain and KL Rahul looked out of sorts in Galle—adding even more pressure on a batting unit, which is yet to recover from an embarrassing slip-up.

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But generally, it’s always sunny in Shastriland. It’s an ode to the former India captain really. For, as he stormed into the ‘Team India room’ at the Taj Samudra—the little cabin is armed with white boards and resembles an army bunker—it didn’t seem like he’d just spotted a silver lining, but instead like he was the silver lining.

And in his first interaction since the disaster that was Galle, Shastri did admit that his team had frozen and played ‘too defensively’ on the final day, but he also remained bullish about the team’s endeavour to play ‘fearless cricket’. Though it didn’t really seem like a defence of his team, there were a few loose ends that stood out. For the half hour it lasted, Shastri ranged from the very convincing to the not so convincing with his post-mortem of the team’s shock defeat last week.

Firstly in true Shastri fashion, he affirmed that the mood in the camp wasn’t too good, and that the team had stayed back in the dressing-room at Galle to address the defeat.

“Everybody was hurting. But there was a good honest discussion. We are not skirting behind any problem, there are no excuses. We discussed everything out there threadbare and it’s for us now to come out as a team and learn from what went wrong in that Test match,” said the team director.

It was exactly a week ago that Shastri had declared his team’s plans to play ‘aggressive cricket’ and how it was his job to hammer it into them. Having seen them surrender tamely against the wiles of Herath on that fateful fourth morning, he insisted that it was time for the ‘hammer’ to come out.

“Now the hammer is out. What happened in that last session of play? That’s the reason I said we will hammer it. We won’t change out style of play. Mindsets will remain the same. Exactly like how it was in the first Test match. But to close the deal, you have to walk the distance till the end,” implored Shastri.
Plenty of self-confidence

You listen to Shastri and you can’t help but wonder that his self-confidence and bluster should be abundant enough to rub off on the whole team. But somehow, that hasn’t been the case always since he took over the reins of the team. There have been batting collapses and meek capitulations, and the one at Galle also showed up the Indian batsmen’s perils against the turning ball. When asked about it, Shastri stuck to his guns and said India were too defensive.

“If they had attacked on the last day or been a little more positive – I am not saying attacked means four, six but been busy, played with intent – it would have been a different ball game,” he said.

With Dhawan flying back home, and Vijay still unsure, it’s likely that Rahul will go into the second Test at P’Sara Oval as the only specialist opener. And it would seem that Cheteshwar Pujara is the favourite to come in as standby opener, especially with Shastri insistent that they weren’t seeking a replacement at the moment. While that could help Rohit Sharma retain his much-debated-over place in the side, Shastri remained non-committal about Rohit’s immediate future. But he waxed evangelical when asked about whether the fear of cementing their place in the side had affected the aggression that was expected from the Indians.
“If you get that fear, that if I get out what will happen, that is the problem. That baggage you have to leave in the past. When you are in a situation like this, live in the moment. Live in the now. And clear your mind of all other things that are on your head,” he said.

The famous Shastri wit too was in-form, however, in the midst of all the serious question and answers. When asked whether the team was keen on bringing Stuart Binny into the team as the all-rounder, he puffed his chest out and quipped, “Who will leave an all-rounder from the team? Give me a Kapil Dev tomorrow, we will take him right away.” But he admitted that India was looking at a batting all-rounder who could also add to a four-and-a-half strength bowling attack.

And similarly so when questioned whether Sri Lanka would take confidence from their comeback win in the first Test.

He first grinned and then thundered in his reply, saying, “It would give them confidence but not far too much. They know which team dominated that Test. I think Chandimal’s was an outstanding innings. I know there is rain and thunder in the air, but let’s hope lightening doesn’t strike twice.”

Kohli & Co certainly could do with any lightning, or for that matter any unforeseen shocks or tremors. For now they will hope that their tryst with the Lankan poltergeist comes to an end soon, and the silver lining that their director so confidently portrays is indeed round the corner.