If one ‘F*** You’ comes your way, give them three back: Ravi Shastri's message to Team India on tackling Australia

Former Indian cricketer Ravi Shastri opened up on his stint as chief coach of the Men in Blue and how he built the winning mentality in the team, especially when they were touring other countries.

Shastri, who oversaw both of India's historic Test series wins Down Under in 2018-19 and 2020-21 trips during his tenure as coach, revealed what he told Team India players to do in response to the verbal volleys and sledging while playing arch-rivals Australia.

Speaking to Guardian in an exclusive, Shastri said, "I was asked to hire and fire, whoever I wanted I could get in and whoever I didn’t could be shown the door. And it was also outlining how we want to play: to be aggressive and ruthless, to up the fitness levels, to get a group of fast bowlers to take 20 wickets overseas. And it was about attitude, especially when playing the Aussies. I told the boys if one single ‘f**k you’ comes your way, give them three back: two in our language and one in theirs."

"The most important thing is getting among the players and setting a tone from the outset: what you believe in, what you think of them and changing the mindset to compete and win," Shastri said, giving a peek into his philosophy.

"You have to be bullish and brutish in wanting to achieve that. For us, and now England, it was about setting the challenge of winning abroad, big time. I was very firm when it came to team culture: all the prima donnas and all that shit, that had to go out of the window early."

Shastri further elaborated how an aggressive attitude transformed the Indian fast bowlers into a potent unit.

"...we knew winning in Australia or England wasn't coming with spin, it was fast bowlers, guys with aggression like Jasprit Bumrah. We were instrumental in making sure that guy played Test cricket. You don't even need express pace, you just need attitude," he said.

Shastri added that defeating Australia not once but twice on their turf will go down in history as very special as it will be hard to achieve by others.

“How many teams can win in Australia – beating an attack with Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood from 1-0 down – and then win in England? That will be hard for any team to replicate for a long time,” he said