Shastri emphasises flexibility in strategy, selection

Ravi Shastri, India's team director, has said it is a big convenience that he and his support staff are assured of their jobs until the end of World Twenty20 in March next year. Until now Shastri and the assistant coaches - B Arun (bowling), R Sridhar (fielding) and Sanjay Bangar (batting) - had their contracts renewed on a series-by-series basis even as the hunt for India's full-time coach was on.

Asked if it makes a difference that they now have a considerable amount of time with the team, Shastri's response was pithy: "Absolutely. Take your job. If your boss tells you 'You are here for just a month, and after a month I will decide if you carry on with your job', how will you feel? Very simple."

Shastri might have strived for a more permanent job, but the big change that the team has made under him and Virat Kohli is flexibility in their strategy. If a strategy doesn't work, they have shown they are not too proud to drop it. Yet it did seem in Sri Lanka - especially when they played five bowlers on a bowler-friendly pitch in Galle and under-bowled the fifth bowler - that they were running the risk of being too set with that particular combination. Shastri assured that was not the case.

"Never a permanent strategy," he said. "You have got to respect the conditions. In this game of cricket you can't go and say, 'I am going to go with this team.' Because it will backfire on you if the conditions are totally different. So you might need six batsmen, you might need four-and-a-half bowlers, you might need just a bowler to do the job, to give the main bowlers the rest. And play to the conditions. And play to the opposition. It's very important you study the opposition you are up against, and then decide what is the best combination of your team."

Flexibility remained the theme with batting positions. When two openers were not available in Sri Lanka, Cheteshwar Pujara slotted in at the top of the order. Ajinkya Rahane, a successful No. 5, was promoted to bat at No. 3 in place of Rohit Sharma, who moved down the order and scored runs.

Asked if all this is to keep players from getting too comfortable, Shastri said: "It is not comfort zone. Nobody is in a comfort zone. It's only when you get into a comfort zone that you say he has [now] got out of his comfort zone. As a batsman in the top order, you should be prepared to bat everywhere. As the team demands. Now these were unforeseen circumstances otherwise they wouldn't have had to do it. You had Shikhar injured, breaking his arm. Vijay [ruled out due to a hamstring injury]. We never had our two regular openers fully fit from the outset. If that was not the case, then things would have been different."

Was swapping Rohit and Rahane's positions unavoidable? "That's again conditions," Shastri replied. "And what the team feels best, not what other people think. What the team feels best."

Rohit holds a more settled position in the one-day line-up, the format India will play before Tests in this season, but Rahane's spot is not certain after he was dropped in Bangladesh. What is also not certain is where MS Dhoni, the one-day captain, will bat, but there have been enough indications he will move up the order to No. 4, a move that has Shastri's blessings.

"Don't you think it is about time?" Shastri said. "He has done the dirty work for the last donkey's years. Give him the chance to enjoy himself. You are talking of probably one of the greatest captains and players to have played the game. I am not talking about India, talking world cricket. Check his record, what his achievements are in the shorter format of the game. I don't think anyone will come close to him."

Two different captains, Shastri said, was not a problem either. "For the team, no difference," Shastri said. "They played under him in the World Cup the last time they played a one-day game. They played under him in Bangladesh. So what's different now? They are playing under a champion."

India will need all their champions because they will be hosting a champion side. Shastri was full of respect for South Africa. "You have got to respect the fact they are the No. 1 team in the world," he said. "We know what we are up against. They are a stiff opposition. They play well in overseas conditions. Better than any other side in world cricket. They travel better than any other team, and their record shows that. We know what we are up against, the respect is there, but we won't take any backward steps."