Former Team India head coach Ravi Shastri opened up on Ravichandran Ashwin’s remarks over the former’s praise of Kuldeep Yadav in 2018, when he called the left-arm spinner India’s ‘best’ overseas spinner. Ashwin had revealed in an interview earlier this week that he felt “crushed” by then-head coach comments and Shastri said yesterday that his job was not to “butter everyone’s toast.”
Former Pakistan captain Salman Butt has now opined on the issue, insisting that it does “hurt” a player when someone from their own team criticises them in public statements.
“Ravi Shastri has said that he’s a coach who doesn’t butter his players; he wants to get them to work. Even if the players get hurt, he wants them to prove him wrong. He praised Kuldeep and Ashwin thought he was pushed under the bus
“Now, as a player, you get to hear things like these. Obviously, you try your best but when you don’t deliver the performances you’re expected of, you have to endure some criticism. When someone from outside criticises you, you don’t really care much about it but when someone from your own team says things like that, it does hurt a bit. Same happened with Ashwin,” Butt said on his official YouTube channel.
“He went to his family and talked about it and eventually he coped with it.”
However, the former Pakistan captain also said that Shastri accomplished in his job to bring the best out of Ashwin.
“But according to Shastri, the result of those comments was that Ashwin worked on his fitness and improved his game. He now believes Ashwin is world-class. So I agree with Shastri when he says that his job is to state facts,” said Butt.
Ashwin is currently the highest wicket-taker in Test cricket in 2021, with 52 dismissals to his name in merely eight games.
