‘One Day You Are In Pole Position, Next Day You Are In Troll Position’: Ravi Shastri On Team India Head Coach Job

Ravi Shastri has opened up about the challenges that come with the Indian team’s head coach role and how the criticism should be constructive. Shastri himself held the position between 2017-2021 and earlier as well and yielded some good results that included the two series victories in Tour Downunder while faced criticism after Team India failed to win any ICC trophies during his tenure. 

Now, current coach Gautam Gambhir has come under scrutiny after Team India’s recent performances especially in the longer format. India lost two Test series at home against New Zealand South Africa respectively while suffered defeat in Australia. Apart from that The Men in Blue also lost the ODI series against New Zealand recently. One major positive result that has come under Gambhir is the 2025 ICC Champions Trophy win. 

“In my tenure, there were good moments and there were rough moments. You just have to take it in your stride because you know there is another game coming up,” said Shastri at an ICC event in Mumbai.

“One day you are in a pole position. The next day you are in a troll position. That can happen. But in a week, you can see all three. You can be in pole, troll, again pole,” he added.

The Indian team is presently playing New Zealand in the five-match T20I series which will be followed by the T20 World Cup 2026 scheduled to be co-hosted in India and Sri Lanka. India will be going into the tournament as the defending champions after they lifted the cup in 2024 edition. Rohit Sharma was the skipper of the side while Rahul Dravid was the coach of the side. 

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