"Told him I got the job by mistake"- Shastri's shocking revelation during a conversation with Dravid about India's head coach role

Without a doubt, the Indian team is one of the best cricket teams in all three formats across the globe. The type of dominance they have had over the past decade is tremendous. Especially in red-ball cricket, India topped the ICC team ranking for a consecutive six years.

One of the prime reasons was the combination of Virat Kohli and Ravi Shastri as captain and coach. During Shastri's tenure, India won series overseas, which included two back-to-back series in Australia, and is currently leading the five-match series against England 2-1. 

In white-ball cricket as well, India reached the semi-finals of the 2019 World Cup. However, he stepped down from the position after the 2021 T20 World Cup. After him, Rahul Dravid took over the charge as, currently, he is the head coach of the Indian team.

During the ongoing fifth test between India and England, the former Indian head coach, who is doing the broadcasting duties, said that he was actually appointed the head coach of the team by "mistake". During a discussion with former English players Mike Atherton and Nasser Hussain, he said that Dravid was the right choice to take over the duties.

The 60-year-old added that he also told Dravid that he got this job by mistake. He said, "I was in the commentary box and I was asked to go there and I did my bit. But Rahul is a guy who has come through the system and done the hard yards."

Shatri also stated that Rahul has done a hard job; he coached the U19 team and then took charge of the Indian team, so he will surely enjoy himself once the team starts responding to him. 

He also highlighted that during his stint, the major task was to shed the "home track bullies" tag. The 60-year-old stated that the last thing that made him worry was the media. He said that if the team did well, the media would work the way you wanted, but if the team didn't do well, the media would criticise you.

Shastri concluded, "The fact was that we were bullies at home, and we didn’t play great cricket when we were overseas. So the job for me with the team was to prove them wrong."