Ravichandran Ashwin recently spoke about some of the memories he had in the dressing room along with Ravi Shastri in the Gabba Test. He stated that Shastri just loves Test cricket and it is very interesting to see the ups and downs in the game. It was a high intensity match for India as they were going into Australia’s fortress as the underdogs with a severely injury-hit squad. Ajinkya Rahane was leading the squad and there was a sloppy moment in the field that provoked Ravi Shastri to break a water bottle in the dressing room. Ashwin stated that the vibes in the dressing room with the former India Coach was just lively and entertaining.

“I was with my coaching staff inside, there were some insane messages that were getting relayed and Ravi Bhai is “box office” when you watch these test matches . He was fuming, he picked up his bottle, he wanted to drink it. He loves test cricket and enjoys watching the ups and downs. He was about to drink and there's a catch drop and he just flicked the bottle and somebody ducked, hit the wall(the bottle) and it just broke, it was insane,” stated Ravichandran Ashwin. Ravi Shastri is a very passionate veteran of Indian Cricket and he played a huge role alongside India’s former test captain, Virat Kohli, in shaping the aggressive mentality of the side.

India’s historic test triumph against Australia in Gabba

Ravi Shastri is considered as an absolute mood on-field and off-field as it is very visible even during the tosses that he hosts in the IPL. As Ashwin stated, he is “box office” and there couldn’t be a better expression to describe his behaviour. The test series in Australia was a very significant one as India were bowled out for 36 in one of the innings and with their captain departing early due to personal reasons, they seemed like sheep without a shepherd. Ajinkya Rahane and Ravi Shastri picked a couple of fresh talents to shape the new face of Indian cricket and it paved the way for some brilliant players like Washington Sundar and Mohammed Siraj.

“That's the beauty of Test Cricket and in a later part of the game, Rohit wanted Rishabh to go for the win and Ravi Bhai wanted to go for the draw. They just kept egging and flowing for the next 2 hours,” added Ravichandran Ashwin on the team’s mentality towards the Gabba test match.  

This was an interesting conflict of ideas between Rohit Sharma and Ravi Shastri as one of them wanted to play it safe and the other wanted to go for the kill. There’s a possibility that Ravi Shastri could have favoured the draw because Pant was the last recognised batter of the team in the middle. On the other hand, Rohit Sharma wouldn’t have wanted to feed the ego of the Aussies with a successive draw and hence he wanted Pant to seal the win for India. Rishabh Pant went on to win the game for India and it was one of the most iconic moments in the history of Indian test cricket.

This was one of those games that meant simply more than a victory as it was almost India’s back-up squad that was fighting against the in-form Australian side. In the match before the Gabba test, India managed to navigate through three gruelling sessions of play in the final day to get a draw. Chetheshwar Pujara, Ravichandran Ashwin and Hanuma Vihari returned to the dressing room with bruises all around their body. The victory at Gabba was a statement that India could do the job even in the absence of their superstars and that was probably India’s most emphatic victory in Australian soil.