IND vs ENG: India Were "Justified To Do What They Did": Ravi Shastri On 5th Test vs England Being Postponed In 2021
Published - 02 Jul 2022, 02:24 PM | Updated - 23 Aug 2024, 12:09 AM
In Birmingham’s Edgbaston, the fifth Test match between India and England began on Friday. After a magnificent comeback by Rishabh Pant and Ravindra Jadeja, who saw the former score 146 runs off only 111 balls, India’s total at day’s end was 338/7.
India was 98/5 at one point, but Jadeja and Pant pieced together a 222-run sixth-wicket partnership. After the last game of last year had to be postponed due to a few positive COVID-19 instances inside the Indian camp, the fifth Test was rescheduled.
Team India Did The Right Thing: Ravi Shastri
India was “justified” in what they did last year, according to Ravi Shastri, who coached them up until November of last year.
“See, at that time, it is very easy to jump the gun and say go out there and play. But there were a lot of players with young families. The word on COVID was not a 100 per cent certain coming from anywhere.
Anyone could have gotten it, if someone would have got it in the middle of a Test match, then that would have been even worse. As opposed to now, where that fear factor of getting COVID and being isolated is not the same.
People know that they have to get on with it, if that mindset was there earlier and it could not have been there eight months ago because even the authorities did not know if they had the right to say that get on with it, nothing is going to happen, it’s just a flu,” Shastri told Sky Sports on Friday.
“Today people say it is just a flu, get on with it, no matter what happens. At that point of time, they were justified to do what they did because of the mindset. Today if that happens, the game has to move on.
Even then, I wasn’t in the dressing room but I tell you, I had half the mindset of probably thinking what you were thinking of getting the reserves out there and finish this series. But it was a tough one, had anyone tested positive during the Test match, it would have been a big problem,” he added.
Ravi Shastri Recalls Undergoing India Vs England Series
After winning the Tests at Lord’s and Oval last year, India enjoyed a 2-1 series lead. India would be the first team to win the series in the UK since 2007 if they were to win or tie the current Edgbaston Test. Coincidentally, the Indian team’s captain in 2007 was the current head coach Rahul Dravid.
Talking about the series that got underway last year, Shastri said: “I think it was a fabulous series. I think the entertainment that was provided by both teams was fabulous to see. When you have couple of Test matches going into the 5th day and you have a result on the 5th day, it is fabulous to see.”
“Lord’s, Oval and England bouncing back at Leeds. Unfortunate, it could not be completed for obvious reasons, COVID what it was eight months ago, the mindset of the players as opposed to the way they treat it now, it is chalk and cheese. But I am glad that this series would end here,” he added.
