Indian cricket team coach Ravi Shastri believes the Indian side that clinched the Benson and Hedges World Championship in the year 1985 is by far the best outfit he has been part of. He also went to say the 1985 side would give the current team under the captaincy of Virat Kohli “a run for their money”.
Ravi Shastri on the Indian team of 1985
In a Facebook live interaction session with journalist Rajdeep Sardesai, Shastri said, “Yeah, no question about that. Take any team that India puts up in white-ball cricket, the best of what it has to put out, the team of ’85 will give that team a run for the money.”
The 57-year-old had a famous on-field rivalry with Pakistan’s Javed Miandad. Shastri had won an Audi 100 sedan after the final as he was adjudged the Player of the Tournament. He admits that even Miandad had his eyes on the prized four-wheeler but Shastri was in no mood to let the opponent have an upper hand.
The flamboyant former athlete said Pakistan and New Zealand were two of the strongest sides in the competition. Shastri opined the Blackcaps were not a side with big names on paper but they would punch above their weight as a unit. He said fans and many cricket lovers didn’t expect India to win. According to him, many thought the 1983 World Cup win was a fluke but the Men in Blue proved it wrong.
“It was as big as it could get. We [the Indian cricket team] had won the 1983 World Cup also. People thought it was a one-off but in 1985, people expected us to win. The pressure was on the Indian cricket team and the boys rose to the challenge,” he said.
The cricketer-turned-commentator-turned-coach would pick Laxman Sivaramakrishnan and Roger Binny as his quarantine roommates if given a chance. Shastri is currently residing in his Alibaug farmhouse due to the lockdown amid the coronavirus pandemic.
