Ravi Shastri recollects the incident when he was caught boozing as a teenager

Ever since Ravi Shastri entered the cricketing fraternity, it’s hard to recollect a time period when he wasn’t an integral part of Indian cricket. Either as a cricketer, broadcaster or as the manager and coach, Shastri loves taking up new challenges and exploring new horizons in life and he certainly is one of the greatest figures in Indian cricket.

Currently, Shastri is the head coach of the national side and in his tenure, he managed to amass brilliant results. Some young players have emerged and flourished under his mentoring and he is setting up a great platform for some other young cricketers like Hardik Pandya, Jasprit Bumrah, Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal to help them scale new heights.

They now face an intricate challenge to face England in England, which has historically been a tough task. But looking at the quality of the current crop of players, one can never rule out the chances of a scintillating triumph. Shastri being the head coach now faces the biggest challenge and he certainly is up for it.

Play hard and party hard – Shastri’s philosophy of life

In a candid discussion with popular host Gaurav Kapur on his show Breakfast with Champions, the 56-year-old opened up about some uncharted stories of his life. He recollected an incident during his U19 days when a warden caught him having a beer with his friends. He recalled how he explained his coaching staff and management after being summoned that his drinking will never affect his game and if it does they are free to act upon it.

“Play hard and party hard has been my philosophy for a long time. Once during my U19 days, the warden in charge caught us having a beer. He said he had to report this to the hierarchy and tried taking away the bottle which was only half complete. I called him up, put the beer in the glass, handed him the bottle and sent him,” Shastri recalled.

“When I was summoned regarding this incident, I told them one simple thing. ‘I drink beer with the man I respect the most, my father. If you see any effects of this on the field, pull me up, you have the right to do so’. I said to not judge me on what I drink, but how I perform on the field,” he explained.

Watch the show here:

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