Sydney
India coach Ravi Shastri on Monday used his tried and trusted ammunition to attack the critics, saying negative comments coming from miles away were blown away by the wind like, what else, a “tracer bullet”. Moments after India’s maiden Test series triumph in Australia, Shastri hit back at the critics, including the legendry Sunil Gavaskar who had questioned selections and the training regimen of the team.

“I said in Melbourne I think I mentioned people taking pot shots and firing blanks. I wasn’t joking there, because I knew how hard this team had worked. When you fire from there, by the time it crosses the southern hemisphere, it’s blown away by the wind like a tracer bullet,” said Shastri.
Shastri lavished rich praise on his players after they wrote a new chapter in the Indian cricket history. “This is an Indian cricket team that will jump over a cliff to win a match for the country. And that’s the determination, that’s the ruthlessness, that’s the mindset with which this team went to play in this series. Hats off to them for showing that courage.”

He was not done there, considering the enormity of the achievement at the Sydney Cricket Ground. “Today I can say I am proud of my boys and I can also tell them one thing, this team now has an identity to look at any other Indian team from the past in the eye and say ‘We play proper Test cricket. You did, we did too but without being intimidated’,” said Shastri.