Ravi Shastri ropes in services of Australian sledging coach for Indian team

Future captain-coach duo? – Virat Kohli and Ravi Shastri on the eve of the Adelaide Test

Indian cricket team director Ravi Shastri has been known to do a few innovative things for the team. During the 2nd test at the Gabba, Dennis Lillee was seen mysteriously among the backroom staff donning India colors. One can only conclude it was Shastri who had had requested him to come help out the new crop of talented fast bowlers. Subsequently the abundance of short-pitched stuff from the third day morning.

What Lillee must have forgotten is that he was not coaching Australian bowlers who are able to change plans when the immediate one doesn’t work.

In the latest of his innovative additions, Ravi Shastri is said to have installed former fire-brand Aussie great Rodney Hogg, as the Sledge-Coach of the team. Shastri, is believed to have said within his close circle that the Indians (specially Rohit Sharma) need to learn how to sledge, before venturing to upset the opposition with verbal barbs.

Rohit’s attempted sledging of Johnson

After the defeat at the Gabba one of the widely circulated notions is that the Test was lost from a winning position mainly due to Rohit Sharma’s attempted sledging of Mitchell Johnson (he apparently said to Johnson: “How many wickets have you taken?”) which only served to wake up the ‘sleeping lion’.

Following the incident, Sharma has come to be the subject of nation-wide trolling. Some of the most severe ones suggested that the hidden talent of Rohit Sharma – the subject of longtime investigation – is to actually bring out the hidden talent of the opposition. One other bluntly declared that Rohit Sharma and 11 Australians defeated the Indians in Brisbane.

Some other couch-theorists refused to believe that the Mumbai Indians megastar was actually trying to sledge. “He might’ve been seriously asking Johnson how many wickets he had taken in the series. May be he’s making a scrapbook or something.. of memories from Australia!” propounded one. Such brutal casting of aspersions are said to have hurt the sensitive superstar.

The team-director, concerned that the morale of the team might be affected, promptly decided to acquire the services of a sledge-coach. Rodney Hogg – known to be a leading exponent of the art of verbal interrogation.

Informed sledging

Hogg is supposed to hone the skills of the Indian team on how to properly apply mental pressure on the opposition, instead of inflicting damage on the self, which the team is doing at the moment. It will start with a thorough background check on each opposition player, their credentials and the stats and a reality check on the player himself and where his team is placed in the match.

The idea is to be aware of just what one is doing when one attempts to sledge. When quizzed, Hogg is believed to have said: “Rule No. 1 in the art of sledging: you don’t just say things out the top of your head. You think first before you speak, and need to be aware of who you’re speaking to.”

Shastri however, when approached, was mum about the matter: “Such things happen in cricket. Ultimately cricket is the real winner.”