Ravi Shastri hints at stepping down: 'Nothing more left to achieve'

After Virat Kohli decided to step aside as captain of India’s T20I team, it was the turn of head coach Ravi Shastri to call it quits.

“I believe one thing – never overstay your welcome. And I would say that, in terms of what I wanted to get out of the side, I’ve over-achieved,” said Shastri while speaking with The Guardian as he announced his retirement as coach after the T20 World Cup in November. “We’ve also beaten every country in the world in their own backyard in white-ball cricket. If we win the [T20] World Cup that will be the icing on the cake. There is nothing more,” he said.

Shastri said that beating Australia in Australia and leading the series in England in a COVID year were “the most satisfying moments” of his four decades in cricket. The all-rounder said he has achieved everything that he had wanted. “I spoke to Michael Atherton earlier this summer and said: ‘For me, this is the ultimate – to beat Australia in Australia and win in England in Covid times.’ We lead England 2-1 and the way we played at Lord’s and the Oval was special,” Shastri said.

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On his job as the coach of India since 2017, Shastri said, “Being the coach of India is like being the football coach of Brazil or England. There’s always this gun pointing at you. You might have six great months and then you get out for 36 and they will shoot you. Then you have to win immediately. You need a hide like mine, absolutely like leather, so it doesn’t make a difference.”

Shastri also said he doesn’t regret attending the launch of his book in London where he is believed to have caught COVID. He said he had no symptoms for the first 10 days and he did not take any medicines either. “I never had any temperature and my oxygen level was 99% all the time. I tell the guys: ‘Once you’re double jabbed, it’s a bloody 10-day flu. That’s it,’” Shastri said.

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When asked if he thinks he was wrongly blamed for the abandonment of the fourth and final Test between India and England at Old Trafford, Shastri said people tried to do so. “They tried to make it that way but I wasn’t worried because incubation probably takes weeks. There were about 250 people there and no-one got Covid from that party. I’ve not got it at my book launch because it was on the 31st [August] and I tested positive on 3 September. It can’t happen in three days. I think I got it in Leeds. England opened up on 19 July and suddenly the hotels were back, lifts were back. No restrictions,” India’s head coach said.

Shastri answered in the negative when asked if he was part of the decision-making process on not playing the Manchester Test? “No, because I was in isolation. I was in London.”