Ravi Shastri talks of two World Cup semi-final defeats that still hurt him

Former India head coach Ravi Shastri’s stint ended with the national team after the T20 World Cup 2021, where the Men in Blue performed much below their expectations. However, during Shastri’s tenure, the Indian side tasted huge success wherein the most significant one was defeating Australia twice in their backyard. India was even on the brink of defeating England on their soil before COVID-19 played spoilsport in the series.

However, Shastri has two semi-final losses in his mind that he feels he could have reversed. The former coach still feels that two particular defeats hurt him and one of them is India’s heartbreaking semi-final loss to New Zealand during the 2019 World Cup. It is to be noted that the same match was played for two days due to rain where the Indian side dominated on day one but couldn’t catch the rhythm on day two while chasing 240 runs.

“As a coach that semi-final game against New Zealand in 2019 got over the same day. Unfortunately, it started raining, we had the momentum,” said Ravi Shastri while speaking to ESPNcricinfo.

I think we had a better team than ’83 in the 1987 World Cup: Ravi Shastri

The first loss quoted by Shastri was from the perspective of the head coach. In terms of a loss that hurts him as a player, he pointed out the semi-final defeat against England during the 1987 World Cup. Shastri stated that he felt India had a better lot in 1987 than in 1983 and could have gone a step more to win the final in Kolkata. It is known for all that India lifted its maiden WC title in 1983 under the leadership of legendary all-rounder Kapil Dev.

“As a player in the ’87 World Cup semi-final, I think we had a better team than ’83 to go the distance and win the final in Calcutta. So that semi-final loss hurt,” said Shastri while talking about the second semi-final loss that hurts him.