Ravi Shastri speaks to media. File

Mohammad Abdullah, Senior Sports Reporter
 
The out-going Indian coach Ravi Shastri blamed an extended bio-bubble life for an underwhelming performance, which led to their premature exit, at the T20 World Cup.

The Indian cricket team, which failed to live up to the expectations of the billions of fans with dismal show and bowed out of their own tournament even before the knock-out stages, have been in a bio-secure bubble since May continuously.

They played World Test championship final against New Zealand and a Test series with England before moving to the UAE for IPL, which was followed by the T20 World Cup. All the tournaments were bubble-to-bubble transfer.

“We have been in the bubble life for over six months and it seems to have taken toll on the boys. There are some players who have been at home for just 25 days in a last few months,” said Shastri.

“This is not my job to talk to the administrators about the fixtures. They need to see to it that players should get some gap in between so that they are fresh for the new tournament,” he added.

Indian cricket board stacked the remaining matches of the suspended IPL in the Sept-Oct window before the World Cup instead of giving the players a much-needed break.

IPL is the richest league of the world and its suspension half-way stage would have meant a big financial loss for Indian cricket board and franchises. 

BCCI managed to avert the fiscal loss but the country paid a heavy price for it. Indian great Kapil Dev also blamed the domestic T20 league for the World Cup debacle.

Shastri also wished luck to his successor Rahul Dravid on the last day of his incumbency.

“I wish all the best to Rahul. He has an impeccable record as a player coach of junior team. He is getting a great team to take the legacy forward.

“When I took over, let’s say there were 10 holed to be plugged and we have brought it down to two only which I believe Rahul can do easily,” he added.

“We have had an impressive record. India had never beaten Australia in their country but in the last seven years we achieved the feat twice,” stressed the former Indian captain.

“Virat and I also threw out the ‘I’ culture and worked tirelessly to bring the ‘we’ culture in the dressing room. I want to thank BCCI for giving me this opportunity to be a part of the incredible journey with the team,” he concluded.