Kapil Dev Leaps to Ravi Shastri’s Defence

Jan 9, 2019 at 4:06 PM

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Kapil Dev Leaps to Ravi Shastri’s Defence

At a time when Ravi Shastri is facing the backlash from several former captains for his over-the-top praise for Virat Kohli & Co., World Cup-winning captain Kapil Dev has leapt in defence of the Team India head coach.

Buoyed by the convincing wins in the first two Tests of the ongoing three-match series against Sri Lanka, Shastri had lavished praise on the team and in doing so, took a dig at the past Indian teams which had failed to win series in the island nation.

“There have been a lot of big names who have played for 20 years, they have come to Sri Lanka many times and never won a series. This team is used to doing things a lot of other teams have not done,” Shastri had said.

Credits: Getty

As expected, his comments did not go down too well with some former players and the likes of Sourav Ganguly and Mohammad Azharuddin did not hesitate in expressing their displeasure.

“To be honest, I don’t have much to say on this. Wish him all the best. Given him a job to do till the World Cup in 2019 and hopefully, he will get the Cup and does the job,” Ganguly had said: “You’re forgetting the win in Pakistan for the first time in Pakistan in 15 years. Also the win in England in 2007. Won’t go into comparisons. Wish him all the best. Want the team to do well and hopefully, he will do well in the years to come.”

On the other hand, Azharuddin said:

“He’s being disrespectful to himself as well, as he has been part of Indian teams of the past. But you can’t stop people from commenting. Sometimes I don’t know why people make such comments. I don’t think such comments deserve a reaction from me. He has been part of sides of the past as well. So, I will leave it at that.”

However, legendary all-rounder Kapil Dev believes Shastri has done nothing wrong and has the ‘statistics’ to back his claims.

“If this team has done well we have to respect that. Statistics say that. Else don’t show statistics. There is no disrespect. If you don’t like it sorry. It’s not about hurting any egos. It maybe that future teams will perform even better. That’s his thought process,” Kapil Dev told India Today.

Credits: AP

When asked whether Shastri’s praise was over-the-top considering Sri Lanka’s poor form at the moment, Kapil said:

“I think it’s just a way of saying. When history is created you have to say so. And these young boys are far better than any other team. They are playing with a purpose and you have to respect that.”

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