The coach opens up on contracting Covid-19 and explains the unique pressures of guiding a team with a billion critics
“There is no shortcut in India,” Ravi Shastri says with a wry smile on a cool September morning in London. All the heat and dust of this summer’s series between England and India, which was as riveting as it was controversial, has drifted away. Even Shastri, India’s coach at the centre of the furore which followed the postponement of the fifth Test at Old Trafford last week, has found time for a reflective breather before confirming here that he will step down after the T20 World Cup in November.
“They’re not bothered if there is Covid or not. They just want you to win, and score runs,” Shastri says of cricketing fervour in India. “You know, being the coach of India is like being the football coach of Brazil or England. There’s always this gun pointing at you. Always. You might have six great months and then you get out for 36 and they will shoot you. Then you have to win immediately. Otherwise they will eat into you, right through. You need a hide like mine, absolutely like leather, so it doesn’t make a difference.”
