"We will be taking no prisoners, but are focusing on our game" : Ravi Shastri

[MenInG]

Brisbane: Coach Ravi Shastri vowed Sunday India will "take no prisoners" in their quest to win a Test series in Australia for the first time, but cautioned against underestimating the struggling home team.

India play four Tests and three one-day internationals from early December, with three Twenty20s before that, starting in Brisbane on Wednesday.

Ravi Shastri added that India will not be taking Australia lightly despite the latter's recent struggles. AFP

Despite Australia's form nosediving since the ball-tampering scandal in South Africa in March resulted in bans for Steve Smith and David Warner, the former spin great doesn't believe they have lost their aura.

"I don't think so," he said. "I always believe no team is weak at home.

"We might have three or four players not playing when a team comes to India but God forbid if anyone says it is a weak Indian team because you will be surprised."

Shastri didn't want to be drawn on Australia's new "friendlier" approach to playing cricket under Justin Langer, which has seen them tone down the confrontational style that brought them so much success.

But he has instructed his team to play hard but fair.

"We will be taking no prisoners, but are focusing on our game rather than what is happening outside," he said.

South Africa captain Faf du Plessis, who has fed off the Australian "in-your-face" attitude in recent years, urged them last week not to totally abandon this aspect of their game.

His Indian counterpart Virat Kohli is another who has thrived previously on the combative rivalry.

Shastri did not believe the hosts' new, polite approach would affect his skipper.

"He won't take his foot off the gas that is for sure," he warned.

"He loves coming to Australia, he's passionate about his game and the pitches here suit his style of play."

While India have maintained home recent supremacy with a thrashing of the West Indies in Tests (2-0), ODIs (3-1) and T20s (3-0), they have not been as dominant away.

They lost 2-1 in Tests to South Africa and were then outplayed in England 4-1.

"It's about seizing the moment. If you look at those Test matches (overseas), the scoreline doesn't really tell you the whole story," said Shastri.

"There were some very tight Test matches and we lost some big moments badly which cost us the series.

"It could have been just an hour in a session over four days which made all the difference — you have to learn from that."

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[Gullycricket]

Here we go Mr loudmouth making statements. Atleast wait till the series gets over

 

[MenInG]

As India gear up to face Australia in the three-match T20I series before participating in the gruelling four-Test series, one player the Aussies have on mind is Virat Kohli. The India captain has been in the form of his life scoring gallons of runs and seems unstoppable. Ploys are being devised with to stop the prolific run-getter from continuing from his previous tour of Australia, where Kohli tallied 692 runs with four centuries and one fifty.

Recently, South Africa captain Faf du Plessis suggested Australia to give Kohli the silent treatment and not provoke him much, which might just allow them to curb the runs flowing from the skipper’s bat. But as per India head coach Ravi Shastri, Kohli is too good a batsman to be bogged down by such tricks. Calling the India captain a professional, Shastri believes the responsibility of captaincy has made Kohli a lot more matured and that he is no longer the batsman he was when he last toured Australia in 2014/15.

“He loves coming to Australia. He is passionate about his game. The pitches here suit his style of play and once you’ve done well in this part of the world, you always want to come out and do well again,” Shastri said of Kohli during the team’s first practice session at the GABBA. “It’s a great place to play cricket. They’ve played hard and the sporting public appreciates tough and challenging cricket.”

To those not aware, Kohli was involved in an altercation with former Australia fast bowler Mitchell Johnson, who inadvertently, while aiming for the stumps, threw the ball back which hit Kohli on the shoulder. Johnson and Kohli got in each other’s faces and the umpires had to intervene. Besides, Kohli showing the middle finger during the tour before that – in 2011-12 – has become one of the most infamous chapters of his cricketing career.

“He is a professional. He’s matured than what you saw him four years ago. Since then, he has captained the side. That alone comes with a tag of responsibility, which has fit well on his shoulders and he’s adjusted extremely well. But he will not take his foot off the pedal, that’s for sure,” added Shastri

India’s team composition hasn’t changed much from the last time they were here and Shastri feels that the players’ experience of having played in Australia bodes well for the team. Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, R Ashwin and Murali Vijay are some of the names what toured Australia in 2014-15. Based on their performances in the last four-five years, Shastri feels this Indian outfit is well shaped to in fact register India’s first Test series win on Australia soil.

“Nucleus of the team is pretty much the same so if we look experience wise, they’ve trained and toured a lot over the last four years. They’ve learned from the mistakes they’ve made in some of the earlier tours and that keeps them in good stead,” Shastri said.

“Like we’ve mentioned, the endeavour is to get better when you go over season. And when you look at the teams that travel now around the world, I’ve said this before and I repeat it again, there aren’t too many sides. Australia did it for a while in the 90s and at the turn of the century. South Africa did it for a while but other than them, not team can really brag about this trait.”

https://www.cricketcountry.com/news...g-previous-australia-tour-ravi-shastri-766644

 

[Abdullah719]

India will 'really miss' Hardik Pandya, says Ravi Shastri

Seizing the moment is key to success – it’s what India haven’t done often enough on away Test tours, says team coach Ravi Shastri.

The Indians are in Australia for a long tour – the first of three Twenty20 Internationals is on 21 November, followed by four Test matches, and finally the three-match one-day international series, which ends on 18 January.

The big one among them is the last. The ICC Men’s World Cup 2019, after all, is around the corner. But the Indians have spoken about the primacy of Test cricket more than once in recent times, and seeing the performances in South Africa and England, where India lost despite pushing hard, that series becomes the focus.

“(It's about) seizing the big moments. If you look at those Test matches, the scoreline doesn't tell you the full story. There were some very tight Test matches and we lost some big moments badly, which cost us the series at the end of it,” said Shastri after the Indians’ arrival in Australia.

“It could have been just an hour in a session over four days, which made all the difference, whether in South Africa or in England. You’ve got to learn from that, either as a batsman or a bowler, and see what happens after that.”

The Indian bowling attack for the Tests in Australia has Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Shami and Umesh Yadav as the pacers, and Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Kuldeep Yadav the spinners.

The missing link there is Hardik Pandya, the pace-bowling all-rounder, who is still out with the injury he picked up during the Asia Cup 2018.

“I think they should enjoy bowling on these pitches if they are the pitches like we've seen in the past. It is important we stay fit as a unit, because that is when you can get the best out of them,” said Shastri.

“One player we'll really miss is Hardik Pandya, who's had an injury, because he gives that balance to the side as a bowler and as a batsman, which allows you to play the extra bowler. Now we've got to think twice. Hopefully he'll get fit soon and if the fast bowlers do well, then we'll not miss him much.”

Many observers feel that in the absence of David Warner, Cameron Bancroft and Steve Smith, the Australians are off their best and India have their best chance of winning a Test series in the country. As such, India have won just five Test matches in Australia in all these years, the last of them in January 2008.

Are Australia at their weakest then? “I don't think so,” Shastri replied. “Once you have a sporting culture in you, you'll have that.

“I have always believed no team is weak at home. We might have three-four players not playing when a team comes to India, but god forbid anyone says it's a weak team. Because you'll be surprised.

“At the end of the day, it's the cricket that talks. I don't care if a (Glenn) McGrath or a (Shane) Warne said something or didn't say something. They would have still taken wickets. When you are good at what you do, and if you do it consistently, it doesn't matter which side you're playing for, that cricketer will do well and so will the team.”

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