The Indian cricket team rose to prominence after Kapil Dev’s side won the World Cup in 1983. Before that win, the other cricket playing nations considered the Men in Blue as mere pushovers who were just present in the tournament to make up the numbers.
However, in 1985, the Indian team won the Benson and Hedges cup to shock everyone and establish themselves as the best in the business. The current coach of the Indian team, Ravi Shastri was a member of that team and speaking to Rajdeep Sardesai recently, he touched upon the topics of the dominance of the 1985 team.
He talked about the pressure after 1983 win first and said:
“It was as big as it could get. We [the Indian cricket team] had won the 1983 World Cup also. People thought it was a one-off but in 1985, people expected us to win. The pressure was on the Indian cricket team and the boys rose to the challenge.”
Ravi then heaped praises on the players that were a part of that team, and described that every player of the team could play well in all the conditions. Further, he compared that team to the current team of Virat Kohli and commented:
“The 1985 team will give any team a run for their money, including the current Virat Kohli-led side. We had Sunil Gavaskar, Jimmy Amarnath, Dilip Vengsarkar, Kris Srikkanth and Kapil Dev. More importantly, we had flexibility in our side. Mohammad Azharuddin was batting at 3 and Gavaskar was batting lower down the order. With him, Jimmy and Kapil down the order, other teams could not take their eye off the ball, even if we were 20-3. Also, we had a good blend of youth and experience.”
Thus, in this way, Shastri felt that the Indian team of 1985 was one of the best of all time.
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