Ravi Shastri or Ravishankar Shastri is the coach of the Indian Cricket team. He is a former commentator and Indian national cricket team player. He used to play for the Indian national cricket team as an all-rounder between 1981 and 1992 in both ODI and Test cricket.
He is the current head coach of the Indian national cricket team. He also played for Bombay in the Ranji Trophy and led them in his final year of playing and won the title for the team. He is one of the well-known and loved commentator in the game of cricket.
Ravi Shastri Wiki/Biography
Born on 27 May 1962, Ravi Shastri’s age is 58 years as of 2020. He was born and brought up in a middle-class family from Mumbai, Maharashtra, India.
He did his schooling from Don Bosco High School in Matunga, Mumbai, India. After that, he went to Ramniranjan Anandilal Poddar College of Commerce and Economics from where he completed his graduate course in commerce. His real name is Ravishankar Jayadritha Shastri.
Since childhood, he was inclined towards cricket and played for his school team in inter-school Giles Shield. In 1977, he captained his school team and won the Giles Shield inter-school tournament for the first time in the history of that school.
After that, he also participated in many cricket tournaments during his college career. He also represented Mumbai in the Ranji Trophy during his college days and became the youngest player to achieve that feat for Mumbai.
Family, Girlfriend & Relationships
Ravi Shastri belongs to a middle-class Hindu family from Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. He is an Indian by nationality and follows the Hinduism religion. His father’s name is M. Jayadratha Shastri and his mother’s name is Lakshmi Shastri. There is not much information available about his parents, siblings, and other family members.
Ravi Shastri Mother
Ravi Shastri’s marital status is divorced. He was married to Ritu Singh who is a known classical dancer by profession. The couple got married on 18 March 1990 in a private ceremony in the presence of their parents and other close family members. The couple got blessed with a baby girl named Aleka Shastri in 2008. After 22 years of their marriage, the couple decided to get separated from each other and they got divorced in 2012.
Previously, Ravi Shastri was in the rumor of dating Amrita Singh who was a popular actress in the Indian film industry. Currently, he is in the rumor of dating Bollywood actress Nimrat Kaur but the couple never accepted these rumors in public and front of the media.
Physical Appearance
Ravi Shastri is a handsome man with an attractive personality. He has a strong body build up with an impressive physique. He keeps himself fit and healthy with regular exercise and maintained diet schedules. His body type is rhomboid muscular and he has perfect body measurements.
He is 6 feet and 3 inches tall and his bodyweight weighing around 92 Kg. He has stylish black color hair and his blistering eyes color is black. There is no tattoo on his muscular body.
Career
Ravi Shastri started his career as a cricketer during his school days. He started playing cricket for his school team and also captained his team and won the Giles Shield Inter-school tournament. He also played cricket for his college team and during the last year of his college, he debuted for the Mumbai Ranji Team at the age of only 17 years. At that time, he became one of the youngest players for Mumbai to represent Mumbai in the Ranji Trophy.
After that, he was selected for the Indian under-19 team, but he didn’t get the chance to play for the team as his first tour with the team was canceled and the second tour games were frequently interrupted by the rain. After that Ravi Shastri made his international Test debut against New Zealand on 21 February 1981 at Wellington in New Zealand. He was selected for the tour as a replacement for the left-arm spinner Dilip Joshi.
After that Ravi Shastri made his ODI Cricket international debut against England on 25 November 1981 at Ahmedabad, India. He also played for West Zone in Duleep Trophy and also played Irani Trophy for Mumbai. His career-best bowling figure 9-101 in 1981 stood as Irani Trophy record for almost 20 years.
In 1985 team India went to Australia for the World Championship of Cricket where he scored 182 runs and took 8 wickets for which he was awarded as man of the series and that proved to be a career-changing event in Ravi Shastri’s career. He has also been the part of the World Cup-winning team in 1983 under the captaincy of former Indian captain Kapil Dev.
He also captained team India for few matches and led them to win against West Indies and in tri-nation series against New Zealand and Sri Lanka. He was an injury-prone cricketer during his career and saw many up-downs in his career.
Ravi Shastri played for the Indian national cricket team for 11 years and after that, he took retirement from the international test cricket on 26 December 1992 against South Africa at Port Elizabeth, South Africa and from the international ODI cricket on 17 December 1992 against South Africa at Durban in South Africa.
After he retired from the international cricket he made his debut as a TV commentator with the World Masters Tournament in Mumbai in March 1995. He also served as temporary official capacities in ICC and BCCI and also as a Goodwill Ambassador of UNICEF. Along with his career as a commentator, he also served as a temporary coach of the Indian Cricket Team in 2007 on the Bangladesh tour.
After that, he became the permanent coach of the Indian national cricket team in 2017 by the Cricket Advisory Committee. In 2019 he was re-appointed as head coach of the Indian cricket team up to the 2021 ICC T20 World Cup in India.
Controversy
Ravi Shastri was involved in a controversy when he said many foul things against India’s former captain Azharuddin in a Tehelka sting operation in 2007. After that, he made the headlines in 2016 when he lashed out at India’s former captain Sourav Ganguly when he was rejected for the post of Indian national cricket team’s coach.
Ravi Shastri also made the headlines when he visited the Swami Narayan Temple along with some other team players and sought the blessings of Bapa Mahant Swami during an ongoing series in 2019.
Ravi Shastri with Mahant Swami Maharaj at Rajkot
Ravi Shastri with Mahant Swami Maharaj at Rajkot
After this news came out in media Shastri was brutally trolled over social media. Many comments were passed against him like “Mandir Wala with Madira wala”, “Thoda Shankar Bhagwan Ka prasad milega kya”, “Everything alright Ravi?”, and many more other comments.
Awards and Achievements
During his domestic and international career in cricket Ravi Shastri has achieved many records on his name. As he became the youngest person to represent Mumbai at the Ranji level. He also has a record of the scoring fastest double century in first-class cricket.
He also has a record of hitting six sixes in an over in a Ranji match against Baroda while playing for West Zone. His bowling record of 9-101 remained the best bowling figure in the Irani Trophy for almost 20 years. Along with these records, he played many crucial roles both with ball and bat and won matches for team India. He won several “man of the match” and “man of the series” awards during his career in cricket.
Facts and Information
In many interactions with media, Ravi Shastri revealed his favorite activities as he likes listening to music and playing golf. He also stated that during his career he loves to play against Australia. He also stated that his all-time favorite cricketers are Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kholi, Viv Richards, Shane Warne, and Imran Khan.
One of the interesting facts about Ravi Shastri is that he became a father at the age of 46 years in the year 2008. Another interesting fact about his cricketing career is that he played at all possible positions in cricket. He also revealed that he neglected his bowling to become a better batsman.
He also revealed that his cousin Mridula Shastri has captained Indian Women Team in swimming and water polo. He also stated that he was called as snail-speed-run-scorer by his teammates as he used to play very slow. He also stated that his coaches during his cricketing career are BD Desai (childhood coach), Hemu Adhikari (during under-19), and VS Marshall Patil.
