Ravi Shastri gave a stirring speech after the Indian T20 team played their final game in the Super 12 stage at the T20 World Cup on 8 November. A clip of the speech, Shastri’s final motivational words as the coach of the Indian side, has gone viral on social media, receiving over 1.3 million views on Instagram till date.
The clip features Shastri giving a moving speech and then hugging his colleagues and the Indian squad.
The former Indian batsman said that the Indian team had over-exceeded his expectations with their way of playing since he took over as the coach. Shastri added that the squad will go down as “one of great teams that has played the game over the five-six years across all formats.”
Shastri’s speech came after the Indian team, led by skipper Virat Kohli in his final match as T20 captain, beat Namibia by nine wickets to end their T20 World Cup 2021 journey. The team failed to qualify for the semi-finals, leaving Pakistan and New Zealand as the Group’s qualifying teams. The team had a mixed bag in the tournament, losing against Pakistan and New Zealand, before bouncing back with three consecutive wins against Afghanistan, Namibia and Scotland.
The former Indian batsman added that while the team failed to win the World Cup or ICC trophies, they would have more chances to achieve victory.
Watch Shastri’s complete speech here
Under Shastri’s five-year tenure, the Indian side performed admirably, managing to win limited-overs matches, and series, almost everywhere in the world. The side defeated Australia overseas in Test series twice, and also managed to beat England 2-1 in the bilateral Test series conducted in June this year.
The Indian team also managed to enter the finals of the World Test Championship this year, but were defeated by New Zealand. Under Shastri’s tenure, the Indian team also managed to reach the semi-finals of the 2019 International Cricket Council (ICC) World Cup.
Shastri will be replaced by Rahul Dravid as head coach from the upcoming home series against New Zealand, starting 17 November.
Reports suggest that the former Indian cricketer will be the coach of the Ahmedabad team in the upcoming edition of the Indian Premier League, but the rumours have not yet been confirmed.