During the recently-concluded South Africa tour, Team India were completely outplayed in both the Test and ODI formats, leading to widespread criticism of the team.
With the retirement of some star players, the Proteas are currently in a rebuilding phase and the visitors were expected to dominate the tour. However, they ended up losing the Test series 2-1 followed by a 3-0 whitewash in the ODIs.
Amid the scrutiny, former India head coach Ravi Shastri has said that there is no need to press the panic button as he believes it is a "temporary phase" and the side will get back to winning ways soon.
"If you lose one series, you people start criticising... You can't win every game, there will be wins and losses," he told PTI.
Shastri said he did not follow India’s tour of South Africa at all but refused to believe that the standard of the team has fallen.
"How can the standard go down suddenly? For five years, you have been number one side in the world," he asserted.
According to Shastri, there's nothing to worry about despite the recent setbacks.
"When you have a win ratio of 65 per cent over the last five years, what is there to worry about? What is there to worry about, our rival teams should worry," he said.
Virat Kohli stepped down as Test captain following the series loss to South Africa earlier this month. He led the side for seven years with tremendous success, registering 40 wins from 68 Tests.
Speaking on the same line, Shastri said such decisions should be respected as it boils down to individual choice.
"It's his choice. You have to respect his decision. There is a time for everything. A lot of big players in the past have left captaincy when they felt they wanted to focus on their batting or on their cricket.
"Whether it's (Sachin) Tendulkar, (Sunil) Gavaskar or (MS) Dhoni. And, it's Virat Kohli now."
Asked whether Kohli’s body language has changed following the captaincy saga, Shastri said: "As I said, I've not followed a single ball in the series. But I don't think there will be too much change in Virat Kohli."
"I took a break after seven years in the game, been part of the team, One thing is very clear, I do not wash dirty linen in public.
"I was very clear, the day I finished, I will be blank. I don't want to discuss any of my players on a public platform.
Commenting on Kohli's issues with the BCCI over the captaincy, Shastri said: "Communication is an important thing. I don't know what transpired in between them. I wasn't part of their conversation.
"I can't comment unless I speak to both the parties. It's better to keep your mouth shut if you have less information, speak when you get proper information."
(With PTI inputs)
