Steve Waugh feels Ravi Shastri’s “best team” label puts extra pressure on players

11/15/2018

Steve Waugh sounded unsure if the current Indian team is the best in the last 15 years as claimed by coach Ravi Shastri and stated that such statements could put extra pressure on players. Waugh was also confident that Australian bowlers won’t make it easy for Indian batsmen in the upcoming series.

The chaos was initiated back in early September when after losing the fourth Test against England, and India eventually conceding the five-match series, Shastri had come out and stated that the current Indian cricket team has been the best travelling Indian side in the last 15-20 years. He had also cited stats that India had won nine matches overseas against West Indies and twice in Sri Lanka.

This had created a furore back in the country with former skippers Sunil Gavaskar and Sourav Ganguly slamming the coach for his “immature” comments. Reportedly, the coach had reiterated the same in a recent meeting with CoA, where the committee had asked him to let people decide that. But, just when Shastri thought his denigrators were done, Waugh has now come out to dismiss his claims stating that it only added unnecessary pressure on players.

"Look I have played against some great Indian sides and I am not sure that the current side is better than the ones we played against. I am not really sure but probably not a great thing to say as it puts extra pressure on the team. Once they start losing, they will get a lot of criticism for that. Look, it's good that Ravi Shastri believes in his side but comments like these could be kept to himself," Waugh told ESPNCricinfo during an interview.

India would be travelling Australia next as they look to redeem some credibility from their last overseas tour of 2018, after losing the Test series in South Africa and the ODI and Test series against England. And the absence of stalwarts like Steve Smith and David Warner has led many to believe that Virat Kohli and Co. are the favourites to register their first ever series win in Australia.

Waugh, however, chose to differ stating that the Kangaroos would still be having a good enough bowling side to make life difficult for India. He also praised Kohli likening him to Brian Lara and Sachin Tendulkar, who have performed on the biggest of occasions.

“Australia will be hard to beat in Australia. We have a bowling attack as good as any team in world cricket and we can take wickets. It's our batting if we score 350 runs in first innings, I think we will be very hard to beat. And someone will always come and do well and that's the nature of the sport. I am still pretty confident that we can win in Australia but it's going to be a close series though," he said.

“He [Kohli} is a great player and he loves these big moments. He is like Tendulkar and Lara. They wait for these and that's where they want to show their best. He will be the dangerman straightaway but they have some pretty good batsmen. Actually, India have quite a rounded team and they will see this as a significant chance. They would have prepared for this tour for a long time. I think it is going to be really close series," he added.

Steve Waugh feels Ravi Shastri’s “best team” label puts extra pressure on players

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