Bullish Shastri backs India's chances

Ravi Shastri's absence at the start of the Indian team's tour of Sri Lanka was responded to with general disquiet, as the team's director was only said to be parachuting in five days before the first Test in Galle for a series loaded with portent.

Shastri's contract with Sky TV, ending after four Ashes Tests, did not take into account a change in the Sri Lanka tour schedule, brought forward by nearly two weeks. Hence the late arrival well after the practice-match formalities had been dealt with. The entire business reflected the general indecision around the team's support staff, their roles and their futures; but when Shastri turned up at his first media briefing of the series, he responded to the stage of accepted flux much like the Galle weather. There was the optimism of bright sunshine, rapidly interspersed by ominous clouds and sudden outbursts of rain, along with a steady, sustained cooling ocean breeze.

Questions about whether being a series-by-series team director was ideal, were met with, "I'm not bothered yaar, I am here for this series. I will give it my best shot and what happened afterwards, we'll see." Discussions about the dialogue with the BCCI were "personal… my business" and Shastri would let the world know about the situation as it stands, "after the tour was over."

Much like it happened almost a year ago, Shastri's arrival into the Indian dressing room has been marked by a quintessential, broad-chested, front-foot approach to answering questions and talking about his team's "aggression" and "intent." There was more of the same in Galle, "Aggressive cricket is a form of cricket where you play to win. You don't come to a cricket ground to draw a cricket match." Indeed. It is what the five-bowler theory, that India tried to hang on their hats on from England 2014 onwards, is meant to do. The problem is that the link man between the top and the middle order hasn't quite been the centrifugal force that he could be with the bat.

In the queries about the No. 3 debate - between the thin ice that Rohit Sharma walks on and that Cheteshwar Pujara struggles against cricketing yips - Shastri made the team's climate change around Pujara more than evident. "We will have to play our five best batsmen. If he [Pujara] fits into that he will play, if he doesn't, he won't. As simple as that." He did show a certain warmth towards the situation in which Pujara finds himself - far from a dead sure No. 3, a situation which, after the South Africa tour of 2013, would have been considered completely harebrained. "We have to understand why he is getting out," Shastri said. "Is it lack of concentration or a lack of mindset where he gets defensive and doesn't want to dominate the bowling or keep the tempo going?"

While Pujara was a "very, very fine player and proven", Shastri said he was pleased by the competition for places. The competition for Pujara, however, comes in the form of Rohit, and the perennial grey gloom that hangs over his form in between patches of dazzling daylight. The situation at No. 3 was, by Shastri's definition, perfect for Rohit because he has the "ability to counter attack" after a phase where "he will have to be tight". It's just a case of him [Rohit] smelling the coffee," Shastri said. "Spending some time in the middle and getting a start and then we know what he can do. We know he has the game for it and let's hope he clicks because it will be exciting from Indian fans' point of view if he gets cracking."

If that perfect day does arrive for Rohit during the course of the series, it might also serve a larger function and ensure that his captain and team director grow grey hair at a slightly lesser speed.