Recently, former Indian cricket player and head coach Ravi Shastri spoke out about his country’s back-to-back Test series victories in Australia in 2018–19 and 2020–21. He even compared it to India defeating the West Indies during their heyday in the 1980s.
It is important to remember that India have never won a Test series against Australia in their own country prior to 2018–19. India performed admirably in both of the series under the direction of Shastri’s coaching.
People talk about World Cups, but if you walk around asking people who follow the game globally, they will constantly bring up those two series in Australia [2018–19 and 2020–21]. How many teams have visited Australia and won a series against them? It reminds me of teams travelling to the West Indies and winning in the 1980s. Shastri said to Mid Day, “I don’t think any team did that.”
“You catch people’s attention when you go there and win consecutive series. All cricket players are aware that an Australian series is among the hardest. It requires particular effort to beat them in their backyard,” he continued.
The two victories in Australia total 24 carats. Ravi Shastri
Moreover, Ravi Shastri likened the two Border-Gavaskar Trophy victories to the individual honours he had amassed during his playing career. He stated that he thinks the two BGT victories are more important even though he was a member of the 1983 World Cup winning team.
“Although it may not be the World Cup trophy, the Border-Gavaskar trophy is the largest in my career. I have played on teams that have won the World Cup (1983) and the World Championship of Cricket (1985). “Those two victories in Australia are 24-carat, but I have called World Cup games,” Shastri remarked.
Also Read: Sunil Gavaskar’s brilliant reply to Australia’s “mind games” was, “Ashwin should tell about the special delivery for Smith.”
India is currently preparing for the newest Border-Gavaskar Trophy competition. November 22 is when the upcoming series is scheduled to debut in Perth.
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