After bagging the job of Team India's head coach, Ravi Shastri is all set with a vision and a course plan for his second tenure.
The former Indian all-rounder had identified the next two ICC tournaments as well as the ongoing World Test Championship to be the big focus for him and the side. "There are two ICC T20 tournaments over the next two years, in 2020 and 2021. The Test championship cycle has begun, so that becomes top priority. We have a splendid Test side that's stayed at the top of the rankings and needs to keep up that good work," Shastri told The Times of India.
The next big tournament for the Indian team is the T20 World Cup slated to be held in Australia in 2020 and the head coach is already speaking about taking stock of the talent at hand and consolidating the talent at his disposal.
'Need to take a fresh perspective'
"In T20Is, we need to take a fresh perspective and consolidate on the fabulous talent we have," Shastri said.
Speaking about the composition of the side, the former Indian all-rounder said that since the ODI and the T20I formats are vastly different, they have to sit down and identify personnel for the roles. He also said that as things stand now, only about four to five players from the ODI team make it to the T20 side.
"One-day cricket and T20s have vastly different identities and one cannot look at it through the mere lens of 'white-ball cricket'. T20 is a wholly different ballgame and that is how we are going to pursue it. At best four or maximum five cricketers from the present 50-over setup fit in a T20 perspective right now. We need to begin with that perspective and build on it," the coach said.
For long it has been felt that the Indian team follows the same template in T20Is as that of the ODIs and hence, now with the coach speaking about the changes in format, we could be in for few interesting moves in the near future.
Speaking about the biggest disappointment in his tenure, the head coach identified the loss in the semi-finals and he spoke about the 30 minutes which dumped India out of the World Cup.
"Those 30 minutes changed everything. We were right there and then it all slipped away. We played some very good cricket through the tournament. We won more matches than any other team, topped the table and that spoke of our dominance," he said.
