On a day when India secured a spot in the World Test Championship final and sailed to the top of the Test rankings, head coach Ravi Shastri had just one word stuck on his mind: ‘bubble’.
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Disclaimer: you’ll see a lot of ‘bubble’ in this piece, only because Shastri decided to use unhealthy amounts of it in a rather bizarre post-match chat with the broadcasters in Ahmedabad, right after India completed a series win against England.
Bio-secure bubbles are an integral part of international cricket at present, and several players have spoken about the difficulties of it, but Shastri seems to have openly embraced the challenge, bubbling with energy as he proclaimed the “bubble will burst” in three weeks’ time, after the end of the India-England limited-overs series.
Replying to a question on India “bonding like a family” by L Sivaramakrishnan, his erstwhile fellow commentator, Shastri went into hyperdrive for about 40 seconds, while explaining how the team have coped with their bio-secure restrictions.
“I think the bubble [is the reason]. I am waiting to get out of this bubble, as they call. Six months in the bubble, and you see the same faces day in and day out. It is time for the bubble to burst. I know it’s another three weeks to go, but the bubble will burst. This bubble.”
Sivaramakrishnan, too, didn’t let it end there, asking about how the players have adjusted to being in a bio-bubble since IPL 2020, to which Shastri replied by extraordinarily babbling even further about ‘bubbles’.
“In the morning, their first prayer is bubble, bubble, bubble, because they have been there since the IPL, it’s bubble, bubble, bubble before they go to sleep. It’s bubble. People sitting on the outside…you [Sivaramakrishnan] have been in a bubble, so you know. You can talk about it. It’s tough.”
The questions, and answers, then moved on into more coherent territory as Shastri hailed the “magnificent” Indian team’s for their determination, saying that “Australia [series win] was good, this [England series win] is better,” and praising the team’s bouncebackability.
Remembered for his gift of the gab, and widely recognised as one of the most popular Indian presenters in the game, Shastri’s probably won’t mind a guest invite to the commentary box to cleanse those 40 seconds of on-camera rustiness.
Watch the bizarre chat here, with the bubble section starting from 2 minutes, 55 seconds in:
