Ravi Shastri - The former India’s All-Rounder

Ravi Shankar Shastri, a famous Indian cricket team player, continues being a prominent personality in this game. He got loved among the fans with his involvement in various capacities. Ravi Shastri played in the Indian cricket team between 1981 to 1992 in Test and ODIs. He is the current head coach for the India national cricket team. Ravi Shastri was the Indian coach, former commentator, and a renowned cricketer. He started his career as a left-arm spin bowler, and later shifted to batting and became the all-rounder.

Ravi Shastri came to life in the year 1962 on 27th May in Bombay. He studied at Don Bosco High School, Matunga. As a teenager, he started taking cricket seriously and played for his school and brought laurels to his school.  When he was in junior college last year, he was selected to represent the Bombay team in Ranji Trophy. He also led the Indian Under-19 team against Pakistan in 1980-81. He studied in college at the time when he was called an injury replacement to Dilip Doshi. Thus he made his debut to international cricket playing against New Zealand.

Cricket career

Within a few months of cricketing career, Shastri moved up to be an opening batsman. He ignored bowling as he loved his batting more. Ravi Shastri was not selected to play four Test Matches against Pakistan due to an injury in his hand's webbing. He was also not chosen to play most of the crucial matches in the 1983 World Cup, but he proved his might with his bold efforts in batting against the domineering West Indies pace bowlers later in the same year.

The World Championship of cricket got held in Australia, which was the first time overseas cricket matches live in India. The finals got played between India and Pakistan. For 182 runs and eight wickets, Shastri got chosen as the man of the series. In this tournament, he was called, The Champion of the Champions. He got awarded an Audi 100 car for his efforts. After his brilliant performance in the Rothman's cup in Sharjah, he was made the vice-captain to Sunil Gavaskar. 

The Captain – Ravi Shastri

He captained the Indian team for a three-partner tournament in Sharjah in April 1987; Sri Lanka and New Zealand, the other two teams, and India had a comfortable victory.

Shastri has an impressive record against some of the most potent bowling attacks against Australia, England, Pakistan, and the West Indies. He averaged 30.69 with seven centuries. He played 80 Test matches in which he scored 3830 runs at 35.79. It included 11 centuries and 12 fifties. His highest score was 206 against Australia.

He picked up 151 wickets in Tests and 129 wickets in ODIs with his left-arm- spin. Shastri has been named UNICEF's national ambassador. He was the only one to be given this title after Sachin Tendulkar. Ravi Shastri has also been a celebrity torch bearer of one of the leading international sporting event. He was the celebrity torchbearer during the Olympic Torch Relay in Oman in the year 2008.

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