'There's not an iota of....': Md Shami mentions India's ex-head coach Ravi Shastri's stand-out quality

Ravi Shastri ended his four-year-long stint as Team India's head coach following the Virat Kohli-led Men in Blue's disastrous run in the 2021 T20 World Cup, in the UAE. Under Shastri, India achieved considerable success across formats.

Shastri took over from former Indian captain and spinner Anil Kumble, who occupied the head coach's position for a year. After the 2017 Champions Trophy, Shastri took over the reins and formed a lethal pair with former captain Virat Kohli. Under Kohli-Shastri, India developed into a ruthless unit in Tests, dominated bilateral series worldwide in ODIs and T20Is but failed to lead the national side to an ICC title.

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During a recent interview with India.com, pace spearhead Mohammed Shami mentioned the stand-out quality of ex-head coach Shastri. “Everybody knows about Ravi Shastri’s pep talk and he speaks just like you see him in the commentary box. There is not an iota of negativity in Ravi Shastri. His positivity rubbed on to the team and that is something that stood out for me,” Shami opined.

Under Shastri's guidance, and the presence of ex-bowling coach Bharat Arun and fielding coach R Sridhar, Shami's fitness improved leaps and bounds. As a result, he took an ODI World Cup hat-trick, remained a regular in whites and sruck at regular intervalsin the purest format.

Shami also praised Bharat Arun and said,"It was great working with Bharat Arun when he was the bowling coach of India. At the international level, there is not much to learn in terms of the basics. It was all about discussing bowling plans and he shared his views and it worked really well for us and the team."

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Shami has been rested for the white-ball series between India and West Indies, which gets underway on February 6 in Ahmedabad. Shastri, meanwhile, has revealed that he will enjoy his break time before stepping onto any new role.

Shastri has been replaced by Rahul Dravid as India's head coach, till the 2023 ODI World Cup in India.