Ravi Shastri wasn't talented but had the determination to win, says Kapil Dev

The legendary Indian all-rounder Kapil Dev recently made interesting comments on his former teammate Ravi Shastri. He reckoned that Shastri played much more than his abilities and became a successful international player due to his determination to win. He compared the two types of cricketers, one who have the ability and the others who do justice to their talent.

He said, “Somebody like Ravi Shastri who had no talent and played so big cricket, I think that is the credit. There are two types of cricketers, somebody who has the ability (but) underplayed, somebody who doesn’t have the ability played much more.”

The former Indian captain was present at the book launch event of ‘Numbers Do Lie’ which is co-authored by Aakash Chopra and cricket statistics and analytics company Impact Index. While speaking at the event, he said that Shastri wasn’t the best of athletes yet played to his potential.

“Ravi Shastri had so much determination. In the team, we value that. We used to say ‘Ravi just play 30 overs, even get 10 runs doesn’t matter. You playing 30 overs is good enough because, in the end, we can hammer any fast bowler when the ball becomes soft,” India’s first World Cup-winning captain added.

“I say this on Ravi Shastri’s face also (that) I admire you because I didn’t think you have talent. He was not one of the best athletes. Another was Anil Kumble. (He was) not an athlete. But when you see his performance, nobody has done better than him. In my mind, in my 30-40 years of knowing cricket, there was no better talent than (Laxman) Sivaramakrishnan but he couldn’t play 10 Test matches,” he said.

Kapil Dev was the captain of the Indian side that won the World Cup in 1983 and Ravi Shastri was also a part of the squad. Later, Shastri also went on to lead the Indian team.