If anyone thinks we put butter on bread, take a walk: Ravi Shastri on role of head coach
Indian team head coach Ravi Shastri explained the role of a head coach in a team like India. He said he believed that at the highest level, coaching is all about man management and helping the players in making those minute adjustments. Shastri told The Hindu:
“We all have roles. Our job is to fine-tune them in every possible way because when you are on the road, there is so much happening, there could be little things in your game that creep in which you don’t realise, which could lead to bigger things. So our job is not to have a stick in our hand and keep rapping them on the knuckles.”
“You don’t have to go to a player and tell him something for the sake of telling it. If there is a reason why you have to tell him that and if you have a solution, then I step in. I will never go to a player and tell him what you are doing is wrong without having a solution to correct it,” he added.
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Despite missing out on some golden opportunities to win the Test series in South Africa and England and failing to win the World Cup, Shastri was given a two-year extension as the head coach. This decision had divided opinions and reactions but Shastri defended himself and replied to these reactions in his typical humorous style.
"How you bat as a unit, how you bowl as a unit, how you play for each other, how you take the game forward if you have a good start, where you give yourself time to take 20 wickets. So all that comes into play. So if anyone thinks that we are there to just put butter on the bread, they can take a walk."
"That is one of the coaches’ main job. To be a parrot,” he further added.