Even after India lost the Test series in England with the final match still yet to have been played, Indian head coach, Ravi Shastri, gave rise to a new controversy when he claimed that the current Indian team, led by Virat Kohli, was the best Indian team in the last 10-15 years.
India ended up losing the fifth and final Test at Oval as well by a margin of 118 runs and that certainly showed there was a huge possibility of Captain Kohli getting asking some tough questions at the post-match press conference.
That exactly happened when an Indian reporter asked Kohli, “The Best Indian team in the last 15 years! Do these tags put pressure on you? Do you actually believe you are?”
Kohli, being as calm as he could, answered, “We have to believe we are the best side. Why not?”
The reporter didn’t take that as an answer as he again asked, “The best team in 15 years?”
This time an agitated Kohli’s facial expressions changed as he quickly counter-questioned the reporter, “What do you think”
The reply from the reporter was clear with his answer as he said: “I am not sure.” Kohli bluntly ended the conversation with the reporter by saying, “That’s your opinion. Thank you.”
Earlier, the former Indian captain, Rahul Dravid was asked the same question but Dravid being as diplomatic as always said it is something which should not be discussed and he also supported Ravi Shastri on the same.
“Look, I think it is a blown out of proportion comment, I think the media is blowing it out of proportion. Ravi (Shastri) has rocked up there and said something I don't think he meant it in a way he said it - my view. But, I think that is not really the important issue. I think that is not really the point that we should be discussing, really doesn't matter whether the team is the best or not. I think what are the lessons that we can learn from England is more important to me, so I don't think it is worth focusing on.
Being one of the best students of the game, Dravid even after so many years, still continues to remain so. The one thing that should be discussed according to him is how do the Indian batsmen improve their game in the overseas conditions.
“What we should be focusing on is some of the stuff we have spoken about earlier which is, how do we improve our batting in difficult conditions? How do we keep our bowlers as fit as they've done? What are the plus points? What have we learnt? Obviously, we have done something right with our bowling attack, how do we keep doing that? How can we get our spinners bowling better in overseas conditions?"
