Shastri made his team feel 10 ft tall

On a pleasant November 2000 evening in Indore Raj Singh Dungarpur ended each description of cricket managerscoaches who served India from the previous decade with the words ldquobut no coachrdquoHe touched upon their acts of brilliance and bravado when they played for India in the 1970s and 1980s But when it came to qualifying them as coaches Raj Singh lowered his volume tried hard not to sound rude and opined that they all fell shortRaj Singh by 2000 had ended all his significant stintsmdashmanager chief selector and BCCI president He was now happy to be an influencer A little before that Indorehosted National Cricket Academy versus Zimbabwe game in November 2000 Raj Singh played an instrumental hand in John Wright being appointed Indiarsquos first foreign coachIndia have been fortunate to have some good coaches and Shastri is undoubtedly the most successful Indian coach He took over a fine side and made it a unit that was feared by the best of opposition teams Not every move clicked not every series was won handsomely and some selections of the playing XI made in consultation with the captain and viceversa were baffling But Shastri made his team feel 10 feet tall something that he did during the few matches he captained India in If some of the players felt comfortable in an imaginary Supermanrsquos suit Shastri had provided the material for itThe playing surface didnrsquot matter to him and save that reported incident about him not being pleased with the Wankhede surface dished out by exMumbai captain Sudhir Naik for the fifth and final ODI against South Africa in 2015 Shastri was never heard slamming pitchesHe made big statements about his sidersquos ability and quality to go down as one of if not the best touring Indian teams He got flak for thatmdashtrolled on social media and some of Indiarsquos former greats cringed And it appeared justified because the coachrsquos headlinemaking comments were made at a time when India hadnrsquot won a Test series in Australia and South AfricaldquoIf you look at the last three years we have won nine matches overseas and three series v West Indies and two in Sri Lanka I canrsquot see any other Indian team in the last 1520 years that has had the same run in such a short time and you have had some great players playing in those series So the promise is there and itrsquos just about getting tougher mentallyrdquo Shastri had remarked Mind you this was said not after a win but a loss to England in the fourth Test at Southampton in 2018When I asked him about that comment he said tongue in cheek that he should have mentioned a lot more than 1520 years India have yet to win a series in South Africa and their last series triumph in New Zealand was in 2009 which means they have failed to cross the hurdle in two countries which throw up challenging conditionsAdding to the list of disappointments is the Shastriguided teamsrsquo inability to win an ICC event two this yearmdashthe World Test Championship final against New Zealand and the T20 World Cup For all the killer instinct they displayed from time to time they failed to deliver the knockout punchHowever Indiarsquos victories in all formats under Shastrirsquos watch in Australia are as meritorious as they come Not many teams in historymdashlike the West Indies who gave invincibility a great name in the 1970s and 1980smdashhave won two consecutive Test series in AustraliaShastri may have endured more bumps than his strongwilled team would bargain for but the fact is that India won a lot more than they lost with him in charge in all formats Even in this age of high and often unrealistic expectations this is commendable and Shastri has played his role in them believing that they can win from any positionHad his former team manager and chairman of selectors Raj Singh been alive today he would have highlighted his cricketing qualities like he did that evening in IndoreDoubtless ldquohellipbut no coachrdquo would have been replaced with ldquosome coachrdquomiddayrsquos group sports editor Clayton Murzello is a purist with an open stance He tweets ClaytonMurzelloSend your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper