Dubai, Apr 18 (UNI) Indian Cricket team coach Ravi Shastri has denied that the team is dependent on skipper Virat Kohli for a good show in the World cup and said the performance of last five years shows that the team does not rely on one single player to win matches.
“If you look at the last five years and the way the Indian team has performed, they have always been in the top two or three (in ranking). To be in the top two or three for five years in a row, to be the No. 1 in Test match cricket and to be among the top three in T20 cricket, would not have been possible depending on only one player. To have that kind of consistent record you need a bunch of players performing all the time and due credit to the team, they had,' Gulf News quoted Shastri as saying.
Former Indian player also said the players who missed out on selection shouldn't be upset as they can get a call anytime.
'When you have a pool of 18 or 19 players, who can make the team, there are bound to be some people who will miss out and it is unfortunate but they should not lose heart. Cricket is a funny game, there could be injuries to players so you never know when you could be intimated,” he said.
Shastri then explained the near miss for Rishabh Pant and Ambati Rayudu. “When you have only 15 to pick then someone is bound to miss out,” he said. “This is very unfortunate. I would have preferred 16 players. In fact, we had also mentioned to the ICC that in a tournament that is long [having] 16 players make sense. I guess the diktat was for 15 and so we could not pick.”
When asked to rate India’s chances and who could be the strong contenders, Shastri said. “You go by the ICC ranking. England has been the most-consistent team over the last two years. They have multidimensional players and they have depth in bowling and batting and they are also playing at home. In the rankings, they are the No. 1 team in the world. So they would start as favourites. There are so many teams that can beat any team on a given day and you have to be on top of your game in every match.”
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