New Delhi: Team India’s director of cricket, Ravi Shastri gave pep talk in the hope of instilling confidence in the squad before leaving for the demanding tour of Australia on Friday. One of the thinking man and of course surely an old fox in the game of pep talk, Shastri said that the young Indian team should prepare to gut out the challenge Down Under.
Once it’s been done, there is no reason the team can’t perform there, in the alien conditions – as everybody else was talking about ahead of the tour. He also hailed the team as a bunch of good competitors. If you are prepared to guts it out, then there is no reason why you can’t perform. They are good competitors but we can show them that even we are good competitors. This bunch has it,” he said.
“I think it’s very important that when you have a long tour, you have the ability to switch off… You don’t have to be thinking overtime. You need to focus on what you have to do but when you are not playing, you switch off. You have got to have a way of relaxing, you have got to have hobbies. Australia is a great county, there are enough places to go to, get your mind off cricket,” the 52-year-old advised.
In the absence of an unfit Mahendra Singh Dhoni, batting sensation Virat Kohli lead the team in the first Test match, starting December 4 at Brisbane. India will play a four-match Test series with Australia, which will be followed by a ODI Tri-series involving England before the teams settle for the 2015 ICC World Cup.
India are the defending champions of the traditional world cup, having won it at home four years back beating Sri Lanka in the final at Mumbai, which was made memorable by MS Dhoni’s winning six and that victory lap with soon to be retired Sachin Tendulkar.
Bureau Report
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