Ravishankar Jayadritha Shastri was born on May 27, 1962, in Bombay (now Mumbai), Maharashtra. He did not start playing cricket at a very young age. He was 14 years old when he began taking cricket seriously. Ravi played for his school Don Bosco (Matunga). Don Bosco was not really a big name in the school cricket but under Shastri’s captaincy, the school reached the final of the 1976 inter-school Giles Shield and then the very next year, it won the Giles Shield.

Ravi Shastri had another notable sportsperson in the family — his cousin sister Mridula Shastri, captained the Indian women team as a swimmer and water polo player. All the performances for his school and club did not go unnoticed as Shastri quickly made his way into the Mumbai Ranji team.

He was chosen to play for the Ranji team at the age of 17. At 17, he was the youngest cricketer to play for Mumbai.

He started off as an orthodox left-arm spinner and batted at number 10 in his early days in the Indian team. However, he made a remarkable development as a batsman and within 18 months of his Test debut, Shastri moved up to open the innings. By the end of his career, he had batted at every position from one to ten.

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He married Ritu Singh in 1990. They have a daughter, Aleka, who was born in 2008. In 2003, Ravi joined hands with Rediffusion DY&R to start a talent management company called Showdiff Worldwide. Ravi Shastri was named national goodwill ambassador for UNICEF. Sachin Tendulkar is the other cricketer who has had the same honour.