Former India head coach Ravi Shastri recalled when people laughed at him for saying India is the “best traveling team” in 2018 following the England series loss, but reckons that the Indian team did live up to it by turning the corner in Australia back in 2018/19 series. During his conversation with Pakistan pace legend Shoaib Akhtar on his YouTube show, Shastri recalled his comment saying that India had lost two back-to-back series in England and South Africa.
Ravi SHasyr ae felt was the point when he had truly realized the team’s potential in becoming a strong Test side. Both were Virat Kohli’s first assignments as Test captain outside Asia. He further added that from thereon both he and then skipper, Kohli stressed a lot on fitness, and with the team having a strong pace attack, Team India had managed to script a feat that no other team had achieved before – winning a Test series in Australia.
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Elboarating the same, Ravi Shastri said, “I think the endeavor was to make this the best traveling team in the world. I said that back in 2017. People started laughing. But indirectly it was a challenge to the boys saying that you can do it, you know, once we had our pace-bowling attack in place. But we got hit by the bullets. We lost a close series in South Africa 2-1. We lost in England as well, 4-1, which could have been 3-2 in our favor with a little bit of luck.”
He further added, “But after losing those two series I knew that we are on the way. Now something big will happen. We were strong and fit. Gave a lot of attention to fitness, me and Virat both and it did wonders. And then we turned the corner in Australia. Australia is probably the toughest place in the world to play. They are born to play hard cricket. I knew if we can compete here, and put it across to them, it will be the ultimate.”
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The 2-1 series win in Australia, with wins in Adelaide and MCG and a draw in Sydney, was India’s first-ever Test series win Down Under in 141 years of Test history. And India went on to continue their winning streak down under as they win the 2020/21 series as well, despite getting bundled out for 36 in Adelaide and they ended up retaining the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
