‘Plenty have gone there and tried their best’: Ravi Shastri says winning Test series in Australia as coach was ‘special’

Indian cricket team head coach Ravi Shastri said on Tuesday that winning the Test series in Australia in 2018-19 for the first time in 71 years was special and added that the World Championship win in 1985 was the most special memory for him as a player. “It is great to be part of those two teams, as a coach that series in Australia, is going to be very very special and hard to beat, because that team wasn’t beaten in 71 years by any Asian team. There have been plenty who have gone there, tried their best and everyone knows how tough it is to beat Australia in Australia in Test match cricket, but in white ball cricket you can’t beat 1985 as a player. To win both is fantastic,” Shastri said on the ‘Sony Ten Pit Stop’ show.

India became the first Asian team to beat Australia in a Test series at home as the Virat Kohli-led side claimed the four-match series 2-1. Australia won the first match by 34 runs, recording their 1,000th win in international cricket, but India came back strongly to win the series comfortably.

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Shastri also hailed the team in 1985 to be better than the one which clinched the 1983 World Cup trophy under Kapil Dev and added that they can even trouble the current side in ODIs.

“No question about that. They (team of 85) will give any team that India puts up in white ball cricket, a run for their money. That team of 85 will give this team a run for money,” Shastri said.

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“I go one step ahead and say the team of 1985 was a stronger team compared to 1983.”You know, I was part of both teams, I played in the 1983 World Cup and 1985, when you look man to man, 80 per cent of that 83 team was still there, but then some of the youngsters that you got in there like a Sivaramakrishnan, Sadanand Vishwanath, Azharuddin, those kind of guys came in to add to the experience you already had of 83 (and it) was fantastic.”