5 reasons why Ravi Shastri shouldn’t be the next India coach
These are strange and testing times for Indian cricket. The Supreme Court orders, the CoA anarchy, the betting that plagued IPL, the conflict of interest and Ramachandra Guha’s famous ‘open letter’ about the discrepancies in Indian cricket administration – things were piling up one after the other.
The Indian fans have stuck loyally to the team through it all, seeing as the actual cricket played by the team was top class – barring that one blip in the Champions Trophy Final. However, it is tremulous when the duo responsible for a reverberating season have called it quits – Anil Kumble and Virat Kohli breaking up, so to speak, thanks to difference in opinion.
While the jury is still out on whether Kohli behaved as a spoilt brat in that whole saga against a coach whose man-management skills he was not quite fond of, there is a new troubling development – Ravi Shastri throwing in his hat in the ring. Shastri as coach would be disastrous for Indian cricket. Here are five reasons why:
#1 They don’t complement, they mimic
At the helm of a good team, are a coach and a captain, who complement each other, not similar to each other. Shastri and Kohli are similar, fiery personalities, neither of them holding a punch back, or even capable of trying it. Shastri, who was calm and staid during his heyday as a batsman, is rarely so on the mike, often getting carried away with needless jingoism.
One wonders if instead of dressing room calm, Shastri would bring the kind of histrionics that barely augur well for the team. Shastri’s and Kohli’s hot-headed approach could make India the next Australia, but that may not necessarily be the best thing for an Indian team that is still growing, especially in Test cricket. The last thing one would want is for the Shastri-Kohli duo to turn into a power centre!