Ravi Shastri speaks on what’s next after his stint as India coach ends; recalls infamous Sourav Ganguly incident

Shastri's tenure as India head coach will end in November after the T20 World Cup 2021.

India head coach Ravi Shastri’s stint at the helm will come to an end after the ICC T20 World Cup 2021. He is currently in England with Virat Kohli and co. for the ongoing five-Test series against the hosts.

Under Shastri’s guidance, India remained on top of the Test rankings for what seemed like an eternity after taking over from Anil Kumble post-India's loss in the final of the 2017 Champions Trophy final against Pakistan.

He joined forces with Virat Kohli and helped India dominate across formats. India became the first Asian side to win a Test series in Australia in 2018 before retaining the Border-Gavaskar Trophy once again in 2020-21. 

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India also reached the semi-final of the 2019 ODI World Cup and the final of the World Test Championship under Shastri's guidance and with his tenure coming to an end in November, he revealed his plans for the future in an interview with Times Network's Group Editor Navika Kumar.

"I am looking forward to the next 45 days. I am not thinking of anything else. Let me focus on that and when the time comes, everyone will get to know where Shastri Ji is heading to next," said the India head coach.

India is currently preparing for the fourth Test against England to be played at the Oval from September 2^nd onwards.

During the same interview, Ravi Shastri also opened up on his equation for Ganguly who is now the president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), and also spoke on the infamous Sourav Ganguly incident when he didn’t allow Ganguly to board the bus as he was late.

The incident took place in 2007 when Ganguly was still an active cricketer and Shastri was the manager of the team. And about the same, Shastri said: "If someone comes late for the bus, the bus will go, doesn't matter who he is – it just happened to be Sourav that day".

Shastri was also asked if Ganguly holds it against him as the president of the BCCI.

To which Shastri said: "Absolutely not. I just had a chat with him when he was here (in England). I have watched a lot of his cricket. In fact, he played in the same team as I did (Tata Steel). I played for Tata steel as captain and he played under me. We go a long way. The media love these stories. They love this bhel puri & chat, and will make nice masala out of it. I also enjoy these stories a lot.”

(Timesnownews inputs)