India’s tour to South Africa tour was bittersweet for head coach Ravi Shastri and team management, as after the loss in the first and second Test match, they were heavily criticised due for their team selection.
Now that the Indian squad is back in the country after winning the ODI and T20I series, head coach Ravi Shastri slammed the critics and said, “There are few people in India who are happy when we lose.”
“We always believed we could win. Very few people saw it, but we could have won both those games (first two Tests),” Shastri was quoted saying to Mid-Day.
“Sometimes you feel in your country, people are happy when you lose,” Shastri added.
After losing the three-match Test series by 2-1, the Men-in-Blue bounced back and won six-match One-Day International (ODI) series by 5-1 and three-match T20I by 2-1.
“We pulled out a calculation where we looked at sessions and we were just two sessions behind and those cost us two Test matches. I said, take the positives out of that and go into the next Test match to win — not to draw — to win! Not many teams would have batted first on that (Johannesburg) track. It was a nasty one,” Shatri added.
“What I am very proud about is that the boys fought on each of the 21 days of cricket there which is unreal for an Indian team on any tour for that matter. Every day they had a chance. Out of 12 matches, we won eight. What can one say? You’ve just got to give the boys credit,” the coach added.