Ravi Shastri is a beacon of positivity in the Indian dressing room. The Director of Team India leaves no stone unturned in infusing his boys with regular doses of confidence and motivation. Along with captain, Virat Kohli, he forms a hands-on, straight-talking duo, encouraging every member of the team to speak his mind and voice his opinion. After India’s 3-0 Test series triumph against South Africa, Shastri was as chuffed as a proud father whose children had scaled the summit of their professional life. Shastri’s pride glowed on his face and brimmed through his words as he chatted with BCCI.TV, reflecting India’s performance in the series. You said before this series that this will be the most historic series in India since the 2001 Test series against Australia. And in many ways that has come true. There was a reason for saying that. I just had that intuition that this is going to be massive. We were playing the No. 1 team in the world. For me, when you talk about bilateral series, Tests are what matters. No one remembers these ODI and T20I bilateral series. In those formats it is the World Cups that matter. Test cricket doesn’t have World Cups, and it is very rarely that you get to play against the No. 1 team. The mindset was to set the record straight. A lot of noise was made over the surfaces we had, but both teams had to play on those pitches. And everyone who watched the series will know which the better team was. And I am proud of the boys. This team has been in transition for a while. Do you think with this series win that transition is complete? Have the boys become men? They have. And this comes out of respect for the South African team. They are the most consistent team in the world across all formats. Whatever conditions they play in, there are a damn good side, and they showed that in the ODIs and the T20Is. To have a record where you are unbeaten overseas for nine years is amazing. It compares with the West Indies team of my time and the Australian team at the turn of the century. For the boys to do what they have done against such a team, they should enjoy and cherish it. In a couple of weeks’ time they will realise they have done something special. This performance is not lesser than any team’s performance since the time cricket started in India. Right through the series the batsmen were pushed outside their comfort zone. How big an education was this for them? Look at Ajinkya Rahane. The way he got out in the first Test – once defending and once playing an attacking shot. And you saw how he batted in the final Test in Delhi. He was sure in attack and defence, which is the name of the game. The problem what we’ve had in the Indian team is that our boys don’t play enough domestic cricket, and it is not their fault. The calendar is so packed. So, the footwork and the way they play spin bowling on turning tracks, that aspect needs massive improvement. That will come when you are exposed to these conditions. They have played overseas for the last two years and when they came home for this series, the conditions they have grown up in were suddenly foreign to them. But it was an education. It also brought out the other side of a few players. Shikhar Dhawan for instance, the way he batted in both innings of the Delhi Test – he played a very uncharacteristic game.

In fact, I told him after the match, ‘You scored 20s and 30s in this series but don’t ever forget that those runs are priceless. They are as important as a 70, 80 or hundred on any other surface. You stalled the new-ball bowlers, kept them at bay and took your side in a solid position’. And what you said about him batting the way he did is absolutely right. It was a facet of his game he didn’t know existed. How many people would have thought AB de Villiers would bat for three sessions for 40 runs? For me, the respect for him has gone several notches higher. Shikhar did the same thing. They are similar players – both are attacking and they like to dominate. But they sacrificed their instincts for their team, and that shows their strong character. They both would have learned something about their own game from this series. You have seen Virat closely since he took over the captaincy. Have you noticed any growth or change in him as a person and as captain?

December 9, 2014, the young man captained India in a Test match for the first time, in Adelaide. A year later I can say that he is now a leader of men. Virat is everywhere. He is hands on, and very communicative. That’s what you want in a captain. There is trust between the players and the captain, and that is the most important thing. The last two days of the Delhi Test posed a different kind of challenge for the team. It is one thing trying to get the batsmen out when they are scoring runs. But when they have decided to shut shop, it is very difficult for the bowling team to prise them out.

For me, the last day’s cricket in Delhi was fabulous. Like you mentioned, when the opposition has decided to close shop and keep every ball out, is very tough to get wickets. But what stood out in our team was the intensity. You never saw the shoulders dropping or the heads falling. They chipped away, one over at a time, and when the opportunity came, after tea, they blew the opposition away. It was a spectacular finish. The spectators got their money’s worth in the last 20 minutes of that Test. Those 20 minutes of excitement were spurred by Umesh Yadav’s last spell. When he got Dane Vilas out in that first over after tea, it opened up the floodgates.

In the team we call him ‘strong man’. During that spell, the Vidarbha Express took off. It was an exhibition of skill you don’t often see from an Indian bowler. We have often seen it from world-class opposition fast bowlers against us. To see what Umesh did to the South Africans in the last session of the series, when it mattered the most, was something else. The way Ashwin is bowling these days; do you think he can get a stone to spin on a cement track?

If you ask him that question, he would say he will do it easily. No question about that. That’s why we call him an astronaut. I said it before and will say again, that he is the best off-spinner in the world. He has taken his game to a whole new level. Going back to the Australia tour last year, he did not play the first Test in Adelaide, because he had work to do. And due credit must be given to him for going back to the basics and working really, really hard. Nothing succeeds like success. When he started bowling well, he kept growing in confidence. And what he has done since then is a astounding. Talk about Ishant’s growth as a bowler over the last year. I think he is very close to becoming a complete fast bowler. He knows how to adapt to different conditions and different situations of the game. He knows when to let go and when to hold back. He has pretty much understood his own game. He is technically very good now. There could be room for improvement, but like you said, he has grown in his role, and is our most reliable fast bowler at the moment. Ravindra Jadeja made a remarkable comeback in this series. Could you see a distinct rise in his confidence level? He needed a break. Sometimes when you are playing non-stop international cricket in all formats – which was the case with Jadeja – you do well one day, get hammered the next, and immediately the spotlight is on you. That eats into you. When he got a break for three months, when the pressure was totally off him, he got the time to reflect. He realised why he was sitting there and not in the Indian dressing room and which areas he needed to develop in his game. We had told him clearly, ‘you are out for a short while, only for you to think on your game. No one is going to come and tell you’. He did exactly that, got wickets in the Ranji Trophy and carried the form in this series. Everyone talks about the wickets he took in this series but his knocks – every score he made in the first innings of each Test was vital. He is also thinking more for himself now. That’s what can happen when you are asked to go back and spend time with yourself. Has the main focus in this team been on empowering the bowlers? Yes. We depend on them for everything. We depended on them during the World Cup and we certainly do in Test matches. We have a terrific batting unit, but all the runs from them will not win us matches if our bowlers don’t give us wickets. We have given them a responsibility and they are enjoying it. Fielding is another aspect in which this team has shown tremendous improvement.

The most improved aspects of the Indian team over the last couple of years are fielding and bowling. A good fielding unit is the first sign of a good team. When you see the energy they exude on the field, how they enjoy themselves, create catches and throw themselves in the field, you know there is a team out there. You don’t even have to see their batting or bowling. And this is where our support staff have been wonderful. They don’t get enough credit. Sanjay (Bangar) with the batting, Bharat Arun with the bowlers and R Sridhar in fielding – they have done an outstanding job. What you are seeing today – India bowling out oppositions, brilliant catches being taken, guys getting centuries under pressure on difficult pitches – it is the reflection of the hard yards put in by the support staff. They are the men behind the scene and they have worked their hardest. People will not recognise their efforts from the outside, but you ask each player in the team and they will tell you how hard these coaches have worked, including the trainer, the physio and others. They have been behind the boys, day in and day out. And with due respect to the boys, they have embraced it wholeheartedly.