SANJJEEV K SAMYAL

chief coach Ravi Shastri said there was nothing to change when he entered the dressing room for his current stint, having taken over the team from Anil Kumble for the Sri Lanka series. For him, it was only about pressing the button, he declared.

“For me, I don’t carry any baggage. For me it was like walking into the dressing room as I had left it. Nothing had changed and no special buttons I had to press. It was just that one play button and off you went,” said Shastri after India’s practice session at the Sinhalese Sports Club Stadium on Tuesday.

Asked what he did miss in the dressing room when he came back, Shastri said: “I didn’t see any change, the nucleus of the team is pretty much the same and I know what to expect from them, they know what to expect from me. There is no need to reinvent the wheel or anything of that sort.”

Speaking specifically on the change in dressing room atmosphere, and if he had to transform it, Shastri said, “I don’t know what it was like 10 months ago. As far as I am concerned, I just had to walk in. that was enough.”

Talking about the Galle win, he said the team was seeking consistency.

“The boys were fantastic in the last Test match but what we are striving for is improvement. There are still areas to improve from the last game. We have discussed that and what we want from this team as a unit collectively is consistency. Not just where you are good in one game and totally the opposite in the other. Your levels of consistency