Ritesh Misra, Mumbai, 14 December 2025
If you are asked to name one sportsman across sports who has constantly innovated and improved, the name of Ravi Shastri will certainly come to mind. This is true not just for his career as a cricketer, but later on as a commentator and head coach. Let us look at his achievements in these distinct roles.
Ravi, the Cricketer
Ravi first came into the news when, as a teenager, he was selected for the Bombay Ranji team for his left-arm spin. In his first two seasons, the high point was a haul of 6-61 in the 1979-80 Ranji Final versus Delhi in a losing cause. The astute Sunil Gavaskar called him up to replace an injured Dilip Doshi for the New Zealand tour, and Ravi ended up taking 15 wickets. In his 3rd test, he also won the man of the match award. However, he realised that with competition being fierce in the spin bowling department, to ensure a steady place in the team, he will need to improve his batting. He did so, and from batting at number 10 he graduated to opening the batting for Team India, both in tests and ODIs.
Overall, he ended up playing 80 tests in which he scored 3830 runs at 35.79 with 11 hundreds and 12 fifties. However, statistics do not do justice to his overall performance as a dour batsman. The same is true for his bowling as well, where he ended up with 151 wickets with two five-fors.
Let me justify why I said statistics do not do justice to Ravi’s ability as a batsman. Imran Khan, at his peak, was majestic and took the pitch out of the equation. Ravi had centuries against him at Karachi and at Faisalabad. Indian batsmen have traditionally struggled in England, and Ravi had two centuries in London. Similarly, Australia is a tough opposition, but his average versus Australia in ten tests was 77.5. This included a 200 in the debut test of Shane Warne.
In first-class cricket, Ravi was a giant with 34 hundreds and more than 500 wickets. In a match against Baroda, he hit 6 sixes in an over off Tilak Raj to equal the record of Sir Gary Sobers.
In ODI cricket, Ravi was more than useful. His crowning glory was when he was declared the Champion of Champions and India won the 1985 World Championship of Cricket. India won all 5 of its matches, and Ravi took 8 wickets and scored 182 runs as an opener, and was a calming influence at the top.
A single sentence on Ravi the Captain. He was the test captain only for one test, which is known as the Hirwani Test, in which the bespectacled leggie took 16 wickets and India defeated West Indies. It is accepted that Ravi, who is well known as a thinker and analyst, could have been a great Indian Captain, but that was not to be.
Ravi, the Commentator
Ravi is one of the most loved and popular commentators. He is much sought after at the toss and in the post-match ceremony as well. In between matches, his energy and booming style make him very popular. Some of his statements are almost trademark, such as “he finishes it in style”, or “that goes to the fence like a tracer bullet.”
Coincidentally, he was the commentator in some landmark moments of Indian cricket, such as Dhoni’s winning 6 in the 2011 ODI World Cup, the 2007 T20 World Cup win, Sachin Tendulkar’s ODI 200, and Sachin Tendulkar’s retirement.
Ravi, the Head Coach
Ravi’s lasting contribution will be for two reasons. He, along with captain Virat Kohli, gave importance to winning abroad, to developing a varied pace attack, and for insisting on the 5-bowler theory since the logic was that to win test matches, it is essential to take 20 wickets, and for that, playing 5 bowlers was a must. The crowning glory was back-to-back 2-1 wins over the tough Aussies, winning 25 out of 44 test matches, and guiding the team to the test number 1 ranking as well as the final of the inaugural World Test Championship. As head coach, he succeeded across formats and not just in test matches. During his tenure, the team won 36 ODIs as against 21 losses, and won 43 T20 internationals as against 18 losses. His focus on an aggressive approach, fitness, and the importance to fast bowling made his tenure memorable.
It is great that after his stint as head coach was over, Ravi went back to commentary and we now enjoy his booming style and astute analysis.
Thanks, Ravi bhai, for everything. You indeed are an Icon of India.
