Viewers and fans got an exciting opportunity to ask former Indian Head Coach and Star Sports commentator Ravi Shastri questions about the TATA IPL 2023 by using the hashtag #AskStar. Shastri , who gave his opinions on some of the questions sent in by fans by using #AskStar, spoke on a range of topics, including who has impressed him most this season, the form of players like Vijay Shankar and whether anyone can break Virat Kohli’s record for most runs in a single season.
In a Q&A session through #AskStar, former India Head Coach Ravi Shastri gave us his opinion on who have been the standout performers so far in the TATA IPL 2023, he said “If we look at what’s happened till now, then the two left-handers, Tilak Varma and Sudharshan, one is 20 years old, the other is 21, they have been a lot of fun to watch. Because they seem to have a future, their temperament and maturity which we can see shows the potential they have to be good players.”
Former India all-rounder Irfan Pathan also gave his opinion on who has impressed him the most in the TATA IPL 2023, he said “One is definitely Tilak Varma, he has impressed us a lot. He batted well last year and has performed this year as well. Even his attitude is very good. He looks like he can be a leader in the future. And the second is Jurel, the way Jurel has batted from his first innings, I couldn’t even imagine the quality of his shots under pressure. So that is one boy who has impressed, even though it’s still in the early stages, but these are promising signs.”
On asking former Indian head coach Ravi Shastri what was special about Vijay Shankar that got him selected for the 2019 ICC Men’s ODI World Cup, he said “In my opinion, the selectors thinking was such that, just like his innings that we have seen in this year’s IPL, that kind of innings plus his bowling is a big factor in his getting selected. When he got injured during the 2019 World Cup, he got a fracture on his toe and was out for a long time. He has the talent, he has worked hard to get back to his best, and you know, at that time even Hardik was facing a lot of injury issues, so India was looking for a player who could replace Hardik and give at least two or three overs to the team and bat well, so it was always to keep Shankar ready in case Hardik got injured so that there was a quality replacement.”
Ravi Shastri also spoke on who may break Virat Kohli’s record for the most runs in a single season, he said “He has to be an opening batsman, because only then will he get many opportunities to score runs. I feel, it is Subhman Gill because he is in good form and also because he plays top of the order. So he will get good number of opportunities to score runs. The pitches are good, so if he can score 80-100 runs consecutively in two or three innings, then at that point of time only he will already have 300-400 runs. According to me, it is very difficult to break the record, because 900 plus runs is huge but one thing is opening batsmen will get two extra matches and two extra innings, so opening batsmen can only break this record if it is possible.”
