Ravi Shastri: Don’t rule Virat Kohli out of touring Australia again
The Border-Gavaskar series was decided by which team had the hunger and the ruthlessness to get the job done, writes RAVI SHASTRI. But the Indian great says both teams still have major issues to confront.
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In the end, the better team won. Australia seized the big moments better. With a captain who was hungrier than ever to win back the trophy he’d never got to lay his hands on.
It came down to that at the end of a fabulous Test series that is one of the best I’ve ever witnessed. Who had the hunger, the drive, the ruthlessness to win the trophy. It happened to be Pat Cummins and his Australian team.
And what a leader Australia have in Cummins. It was something else to see the way in which he went about his job in that inimitable manner, with no fuss and no nonsense. Right till the very end with his clinical spell on the final morning of the series.
My lasting memory from this summer, like I’ve said a few times, will be the crowds that thronged all the iconic venues around this country. And also the quality of fast bowling on show from both teams. The trio of Aussie pacers led by Cummins and including Scotty Boland and Mitchell Starc. And the obvious highlight of the series, being the spectacular bowling of Jasprit Bumrah.
It was heartbreaking in the end when we didn’t see him on the field for the final act and final chapter of this ultimate battle between the best teams in the world. For the lead protagonist of the series to be absent at the very end was disappointing and he’d have felt it the most after his heroics over the last eight weeks, that nobody in Australia will ever forget.
There’ll be plenty to ponder for both teams despite the 3-1 final scoreline. More so for India of course. India will have to develop a crop of young fast bowlers for the future and also find the right kind of youngsters who can fit into the batting department for all conditions.
The real positives for this tour from a batting perspective were Yashasvi Jaiswal, who we were all looking forward to seeing, and Nitish Reddy, who came from nowhere and stole the stage.
But then there are the senior players who we need to talk about. To begin with let’s go back to the bizarre manner in which this crucial Test match started. With the captain, Rohit Sharma, opting out. It left a lot of unanswered questions even at the end of it. There was a clear lack of straight talk as regards to the captain prior to the game, and that doesn’t happen too often, especially before a crunch Test with the trophy still on the line.
Your guess is as good as mine to understand how much India benefited from all that late drama.
The bigger disappointment for the crowds and for even a lot of Australian fans was not getting to see the runs expected from Virat Kohli. Especially after the very promising start in Perth. And the similar manner of his dismissals. I guess it does happen over the course of a long career. I’m not prepared to write him off yet. Mark my words. I won’t be surprised if we see Virat Kohli playing Test cricket again on Australian soil.
When I look back over the series, the scoreline could have been much tighter. But then big teams rise to the occasion, and that’s been the case whenever these two teams have played against each other in the last 10 years. I’m not surprised at all with the way in which Australia bounced back after the comprehensive defeat in Perth. It took a lot of character to then win three Tests, that too in venues like the MCG and SCG where India might have really fancied themselves to give a tough fight in.
It’s in Australia’s best interests however that they too think seriously about getting into transition mode as a Test team. They have a bowling attack, which while having world-beaters, is on the other side of 30. And they need to seriously think about their batting as well. This was one of the most tentative Australian batting line-ups I’ve seen in a long, long time.
Sri Lanka is a great chance to set that transition into motion. And then continue on with it during the Test tour of the Caribbean before preparing for next summer’s Ashes on home soil.
They’ll also have their eye on the World Test Championship final which is shaping up to be a cracker. It’ll be a test for both batting teams on a fresh June wicket at Lord’s with top-class fast bowlers on both sides. I’ll still pick Australia to start as favourites because of the experience in their bowling attack. It’ll be even better if they can unearth a couple of good new players in Sri Lanka.
I’d written a week ago about there being a need for a two-tier structure to Test cricket, and I’m glad to hear that talks are already underway about that coming into force by 2027. The more series I see like the one we’ve been fortunate to witness here, the more I’m convinced that that’s the way forward. It fits perfectly.
And finally, it’s been an absolute pleasure sharing my thoughts here over the last two months. For me personally, it’s been a privilege and a honour to be back here and once again be part of the great rivalry between Australia and India in a different capacity as a broadcaster and journalist. It was thoroughly enjoyable and I will never forget it.
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Originally published as Ravi Shastri: Don’t rule Virat Kohli out of touring Australia again
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