Ravi Shastri & Co. passed on a team that beat the world at their home but it failed to impress

India, under Shastri, beat Australia at their home twice in three years. Yet, he was more trolled than admired. It was almost fashionable to attack him. Shastri isn’t a reserved person and nor is he known to be politically correct. He is flamboyant and loves his drink. But what he did was good for the team. And that’s all that matters in the end. Unlike Dravid, who is composed and reserved, Shastri polarised opinion.

His statement, “This is the best travelling team”, made in the aftermath of the 2019 Australia series win wasn’t the most appropriate at the time. Australia were missing some of their key players. The timing wasn’t the best, and Shastri could have said things differently. He stoked controversy by comparing the 2018–19 series win in Australia with the 1983 or 2011 World Cup win. However, those statements don’t define his legacy as coach.

Beating Australia at their home twice in three years does. For the record, India were leading the Test series against England in England 2-1 in 2021 when the last Test was postponed because of Covid. That was the last Test series that India played overseas with Shastri as coach.

With close to two years now since he took over, Dravid doesn’t really have much to show for as coach when you compare him to Shastri. India lost to South Africa in South Africa, lost the one-off Test against England and now have lost the World Test Championship final. And unless coach Dravid can win the 50-over World Cup at home, it will be impossible for him to go one better on Shastri, who also could not win an ICC trophy as head coach. That’s the only thing that can make Dravid’s stint a standout one.

When you see India’s record in Tests under the two coaches and try to figure out what has gone wrong under Dravid, the one thing that stands out is the declining graph of our bowlers. Under Shastri, the top order struggled with the bat. The struggle continues under Dravid. Under Shastri, the middle order led by Rishabh Pant and Ravindra Jadeja, and on occasions Shardul Thakur, stood tall. Jadeja and Shardul continue to do well while Pant is being sorely missed by the current team management. While the batting graph has stayed similar — 296, when treated in isolation, isn’t a bad first innings score in England — the bowling performances have declined under Dravid and bowling coach Paras Mhambrey. Under Shastri and Bharat Arun, India repeatedly managed to pick 20 wickets without conceding too many and that resulted in the big wins in Australia and England. Under Dravid and Mhambrey, India failed to defend 250 in South Africa, 380 in England and have now conceded 469 against Australia at the Oval, a first innings bowling effort that had a telling impact on the match. This was alluded to by Rahul Dravid who said that it wasn’t a 469-run pitch, and that India conceded far too many runs in the last session on day one, something which allowed Australia to take control. According to him, the bowlers were too wide, and as a result, Travis Head and Steve Smith cashed in. “We knew what lines and lengths to bowl,” said Dravid after the game. “Our lengths weren’t bad, but we probably bowled too wide. Gave room to Head.”

Under Bharat, the likes of Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Ishant Sharma and Umesh Yadav contributed hugely to Indian cricket, both at home and away. While Ishant has been phased out, neither Shami nor Umesh are getting any younger, and it’s hard to see them measuring out their runups in the next WTC final, if India get that far. In the last one-and-a-half year the famed bowling unit hasn’t looked the same as in 2018 or 2021.

Johnny Bairstow tore into the Indian attack at Edgbaston in July 2022 and made a chase of 378 look easy in the fourth innings. Head and Smith took away the game on Day 1 itself at the Oval. Perhaps it’s time for Mhambrey to push for the baton to be passed on to the younger ones who catch the eye with the A team. That’s what evolution is all about. Take a leaf out of Bharat’s book and do what he did.

Sample this from Bharat: “…at the end of a not-so-good day in office, we sat them down and watched the videos with them while asking them three questions. First, we asked them what they were trying to do and if the execution was right. It is sport and it can happen that you think something and yet you aren’t able to execute it. Second, we asked them if they thought their execution was right, but the batsman had a great day. And third, we checked if they were consistently trying to execute what they felt was the right ball to bowl and if they had the right field for what they were trying to do. By the end of the session, the bowlers knew what had gone wrong and were ready to get things right the next day.