Glimpses of greatness: reviewing the Shastri years (2017-2021)

We review the Indian team over the last four years - the period since July 2017 when Ravi Shastri took over as head coach.

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Talking Points:

• The significance of being a very good team in a competitive era
• The bowling depth in this era world-wide - which is superior to previous teams
• Irfan Pathan in the mid-2000s - and the first glimpse of picking five bowlers
• India's dominance over West Indies and Sri Lanka in the last decade
• The confidence to play four fast bowlers even if it meant weakening the batting
• India's phenomenal home record over the last decade
• The perception experiment with Atherton, Hussain and Stewart
• India's home conditions being more varied than conditions away
• The value of Bharat Arun - India's bowling coach
• The post-facto Vijay Shankar outrage
• The diffuse excellence of this Indian team - and the clamour for an ICC Trophy
• The Dhoni problem in the 2019 World Cup

Participants:

Karthik Krishnaswamy (@the_kk)

Kartikeya Date (@cricketingview)

Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)

Related:

• 'I have absolutely no regrets about the book launch': Ravi Shastri - Guardian
• 'How do I take 20 wickets overseas?' - Kartikeya Date - Cricketingview
• John Wright's Indian summers - Amazon.com
• India's home record in the 2010s rivals the great Australian era - Deepu Narayanan - Cricbuzz.com
• Not enough home advantage? No problem for India - Karthik Krishaswamy - ESPNcricinfo
• 'I cannot tell a bowler what to do or not do. I need to help them understand their own rhythm': Bharat Arun - Karthik Krishnaswamy - ESPNcricinfo
• 'If I don't take wickets even in one innings, I think my career for India is over': Ishant Sharma - Nagraj Gollapudi - ESPNcricinfo
• 'I was waiting for it' - Vijay Shankar on bowling the final over against Australia - ESPNcricinfo