Ravi Shastri vindicates book launch: The Indian head coach was remains unperturbed by the unnecessary blame coming his way.
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India head coach Ravi Shastri believes that the recently concluded English summer has been the “best” in a long time and that no team comes close to the current Indian cricket team which has played exceptionally well in the COVID-19 era.
Starting with England playing a fascinating two-match Test series against New Zealand, this English summer witnessed the inaugural ICC World Test Championship final, England hosting Sri Lanka and Pakistan for white-ball series before playing a riveting Test series against India.
“It’s been the best summer of cricket England has seen in a long time, certainly from an Indian cricket team. It’s Covid times, awesome summer though. The boys were fantastic on either side of the Thames,” Shastri was quoted as saying by Mid-Day.
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“No team played in Covid times like this Indian team did in Australia and England. Just ask the experts here. Nothing has given me more job satisfaction in the game and I have been around for a bit as you would know.”
Ravi Shastri vindicates book launch
Shastri, who usually finds himself being criticized for trivial reasons especially across social media platforms, sounded unperturbed when asked about being blamed after testing positive for COVID-19 post organizing a book launch in London.
It is worth mentioning that Shastri’s book ‘Star Gazing: The Players in My Life’ had been launched on September 1, a few days before he was diagnosed with COVID. In addition to Shastri, India bowling coach Bharat Arun, fielding coach R Sridhar and assistant physiotherapist Yogesh Parmar had also tested positive.
After Parmar’s positive result, the situation started to become haywire as a potential COVID-19 scare hit the Indian contingent. While no other member tested positive, it resulted in the cancellation of the fifth Test between England and India in Manchester.
A mere four-day gap between the Day 5 of fifth Test and the first match of Indian Premier League 2021 further made it impossible for ECB (England Cricket Board) and BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) to postpone the match.
A primary reason why Shastri wasn’t at fault with respect to organizing a book launch was that teams were no longer staying in a bio-bubble and that the country wasn’t following any COVID restrictions. “The whole country [United Kingdom] is open. Anything could have happened from Test One,” Shastri said regarding not flouting any protocol.
