India will have the advantage of playing ODIs first in England, feels Ravi Shastri

04/24/2018

Indian cricket team head coach, Ravi Shastri feels that playing white ball cricket before plunging into red ball action will be advantageous for India and will help them settle down in England. India will tour England in late June and will be playing T20s, ODIs and Tests in that respective order.

Historically, Team India do not have an impressive record in England but given how India are now a much potent side than ever before, the Men in Blue would be looking to change the record books this summer. Speaking to the press at a book release function, Ravi Shastri stated that being in England one month before the first match is played will help them gear up for the high action Test cricket.

"(Former Australia captain) Michael (Clarke) and I had a chat earlier (today) that we (Indian team) will be there (in England) almost a month before the first Test match. We play some one-day cricket before the first Test match starts. You kick off the one-day games around 1st of July and the first Test starts August 1. That gives us that much more time (to prepare for Tests)," said the former Indian vice-captain.

India will play their first T20 match in England on July 3rd. Addressing the problem of tight schedule and not having enough time for International tours’ preparation, Shastri mentioned that the tight schedule was already prepared from beforehand and would not put the burden of it on BCCI or CoA. However, the problems have been addressed for the new FTP that kicks in 2019.

"To be fair to the BCCI and the CoA, those plans were (already) in place. It's only when the new FTP kicks in 2019, that's when you can address those problems and they have been addressed," he remarked.

Complimenting India’s performance in South Africa, Shastri said that he was proud of the way India team performed in South Africa and raised the bar of Indian cricket by winning the ODI series there.

"Well before we went to South Africa, I told you clearly the next 15 months was going to define this Indian cricket team. What our boys did in South Africa makes me proud as a coach because there were 21 days of cricket and on each one of those 21 days, India competed." he pointed out.

"On each one of those days in the Test series the pendulum swung from one side to other. 21 out of 21 days the boys competed; they were relentless. The one-day series we won after 25 years. And so from a coach's point of view, you have to just stand up and say 'well done, guys. Simply magnificent. You have raised the bar'," he added.

Rohit Sharma, who was part of the team that travelled to South Africa, was also present at the event, said that team Indian had learned from their mistakes and had done their homework, which resulted in improved performance.

"And what we did in South Africa was an example of how this team is going to play over the next few years, till the World Cup at least. We want to go and express ourselves on the field. We have learnt from our mistakes and we tried and rectified it when we went to South Africa. Hence we saw improved performance from all the players.

"We read the conditions well and that is all cricket is about. You have to read the situation, the opposition and I thought we did our homework pretty well against the opposition and that is one of the reasons that we got the results we wanted,” the Mumbai Indians skipper said.

Rohit seemed to agree with Ravi Shastri and pointed out that they played good quality cricket in South Africa and will look to repeat the same in the upcoming overseas tours.

"Like Ravi bhai said the Test series could have gone either way. The three Test matches we played, we dominated nearly 14 days. One day of bad Test cricket and we lost the series, but that can happen.

"We are a young bunch but to come out and perform like that against a quality side gives us a lot of confidence going to England now and then to Australia," said Rohit.

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