To be rated as a good team, you gotta be relentless: Ravi Shastri

After a clinical display in the final ODI against Australia, head coach Ravi Shastri believes they have to be relentless to be rated as a top side. India completed a comprehensive 4-1 thumping in the 5-match series with a 7-wicket win at the Jamtha, Nagpur. This also helped Virat Kohli’s side eclipse South Africa and become the ICC World number 1 ranked side in ODIs.

Ravi Shastri was full of praises for Hardik Pandya and Rohit Sharma. He said that Rohit is doing a brilliant job for them and is justifying his nickname, the Hitman. “If you want to be rated as a good team you’ve got to be relentless. We repeated the job on multiple occasions and that is how we were ruthless in this series. Hitman (Rohit) did a superb job for us in the match, he was brilliant,” Shastri said in the post-match press conference.

Talking about their death overs bowling, he said, “The death bowling is tremendous. It is all down to skill when you have bowlers like these, they bring you back in the final overs. They complement each other really well, they have experience, have different actions and hit their yorkers to perfection.”

Hardik Pandya has been a revelation this series and the number of runs he amassed this series was completely unexpected. Shastri believes that he’s quite a special talent, a little reminiscent of the Superman Yuvraj Singh during his youth days. He also believes that they can raise the bars in the fielding with so many youngsters available in the side.

“Hardik is someone who can take on the bowling right from the start, he is a floater for us. I haven’t seen striking like that, probably Yuvraj in his youth but this guy is special and still has the exuberance of youth. We can raise the bar in the fielding and we can seize the big moments. We also need batsmen to carry on after they score the 60s and 70s, quite like what Rohit did today,” Shastri opined.

The wicket wasn’t easy: Rahane

Ajinkya Rahane once again chipped in with a crucial performance for the side. He scored his 4th half-century in the series and registered his 3rd hundred-run stand with Rohit Sharma at Nagpur, which condensed the 240-odd runs target quite easily. He said in the press conference that he enjoyed the knock and he loves the competition with Dhawan and Rohit. He also spoke at length about his partnership with Rohit.

“I think this wicket wasn’t easy, 240 was a job well done with the ball, but when we batted, the ball was coming really slowly, I enjoyed my knock today. I always want to do my best, Shikhar and Rohit have done well for us, we love the competition. Me and Rohit complement each other, we know our strengths, we wanted to time the ball and get a good opening partnership, that gave us the momentum,” Rahane opined.

Talking about their opponents, he said they never took them lightly. He also added that playing at home made an impact. “We never took them (Australia) lightly, they are a quality team and we need to recognize that. But we were playing at home and we knew these pitches better,” Rahane concluded.