Team India’s former coach Ravi Shastri is known for his strong words that help in motivating players on the field and give their 100% for the team’s cause. Former Team India fielding coach R. Sridhar revealed one such moment where Ravi Shastri’s strong words motivated Mohammed Shami to bowl a match-winning spell.
R. Sridhar recalls Ravi Shastri’s strong words to Mohammed Shami
Team India played a historic test three-match series against South Africa in 2018 as all three tests were hard fought by the two sides. Despite showing some brilliant performance, Team India missed out on the first two tests as the Proteas got an inaccessible lead of 2-0.
Team India’s pacers constantly bowled some effective spells in the first two tests but the likes of AB de Villiers, Quinton de Kock and captain Faf du Plessis made sure that the South African team put competitive totals in every innings.
The Indian team badly wanted to get a victory in the third test but their pace spearhead Mohammed Shami was ineffective in the first innings and till tea in the second innings as well as South Africa were cruising towards the target of 241 and were placed at 136/3.
During the lunch break, Shami had piled up his plate with rice and mutton curry. Team India’s head coach Ravi Shastri got furious after seeing his plate and yelled at him saying, “Bloody hell, will you satiate your hunger here itself or will you save some of it for wickets too?”
Mohammed Shami replied to him saying,”Haan, haan, yahan bhi kha lunga, udhar bhi kha lunga (Yes, yes, I will eat here and I will eat there too)“
Just before the post-tea session, Ravi Shastri reminded Shami of their conversation during the lunch break and the promise made by the senior pacer.
Shastri’s words did the trick as Mohammed Shami was literally unplayable in the post-tea session. He bowled a fiery spell of 5 for 28. Shami’s superb spell helped the Indian team as they ended up winning the test by 63 runs. After this victory, the Indian team have constantly played some great cricket in the SENA countries.