"Mark my words, give this team 12 months and they will be back in the top two," said Ravi Shastri. © KAREEM
With Australia holding on to their 2-0 lead after the drawn game at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), India have lost the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, but team director, Ravi Shastri, feels the tourists have run the hosts hard so far in the series and there are a lot of positives to take from their performance.
Failing to come out on top in crucial moments is something that the team should address, added Shastri, who mentioned that he was pleased with the team's aggressive mindset and predicted that the Indian team will be amongst the top-ranked Test nations within a year.
"This Indian team has pushed Australia hard. There are certain areas we have to address. Twenty minutes of madness has cost both our games. Little bit of luck and things could have been different. But, I am happy with the mindset. Mark my words, give this team 12 months and they will be back in the top two," Shastri said, in an interaction with Sunil Gavaskar and Sanjay Manjrekar.
"Here they have taken the attack to the opposition. They will be a bullet side in 12 months. They will learn how to cope with pressure. This is the first draw at the MCG in 17 years. The batting that I saw on Day 3 was something I have not seen in a long time. The whole of Australia stood up. India have not come out to compete, they are here to win. The scoreline does not matter," he added.
While speaking of India's bowling performance, which has been lacklustre, Shastri said the team lacks a quality all-rounder, who can ease the workload of the front-line bowlers. "What we miss overseas is a batsman in the top six who could bowl, somebody like Sourav (Ganguly) - a medium paced all-rounder, who could bowl overseas. I believe with four bowlers at times, the workload becomes hard."
"Discipline-wise, they bowled well this morning. They will learn from that. We will go to Sydney without a care in the world. To hell with the scoreline. You will have to take a chance with a certain player. At the end of this tour, we can do all the evaluation. It is important to have a sustained level of performance," Shastri added.
The former India skipper wanted the pace bowlers to bowl with consistency and challenged them to retain the same intensity throughout the game. "You may bowl well in the first two sessions. But my challenge to (Mohammed) Shami, Umesh (Yadav) and (Varun) Aaron is show me what you have in the final session. If you don't do it, somebody else will do it," he said.
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