Former Pakistan captain and veteran batter Salman Butt has reacted to Ravi Shastri’s latest comments on R Ashwin after the spinner claimed that he was "crushed" by the former India head coach’s remarks during India’s tour of Australia in 2018-19.
Recently, Ashwin revealed that he was "crushed" after Shastri dubbed Kuldeep Yadav as India's "best" overseas spinner following his five-wicket haul in the Sydney Test. At that time, the veteran spinner was struggling and was out of action in the three games due to fitness issues.
Responding to Ashwin’s remarks, Shastri said that his job was not to "butter everyone's toast" and was happy that his statement made him improve as a bowler. However, Butt said that such public statements from their own team hurt the players.
Butt said on his official YouTube channel: “Ravi Shastri has said that he's a coach who doesn't butter his players; he wants to get them to work. Even if the players get hurt, he wants them to prove him wrong. He praised Kuldeep and Ashwin thought he was pushed under the bus.”
He added, “Now, as a player, you get to hear things like these. Obviously, you try your best but when you don't deliver the performances you're expected of, you have to endure some criticism. When someone from outside criticizes you, you don't really care much about it but when someone from your own team says things like that, it does hurt a bit. The same happened with Ashwin. He went to his family and talked about it and eventually he coped with it.”
However, Butt lauded Shastri as his words brought the best out of Ashwin, who is currently the highest wicket-taker in Test cricket in 2021, with 52 dismissals to his name in 8 games.
He signed off by saying, “But according to Shastri, the result of those comments was that Ashwin worked on his fitness and improved his game. He now believes Ashwin is world-class. So I agree with Shastri when he says that his job is to state facts.”
