On being asked if Ravi Shastri was the ‘Yes man’ for him, Virat responded with that being the most bizarre thing he heard. He also refused to the reports of being adamant on having Shastri as the Indian coach.
Ravi Shastri, the 1983 World Cup winner and Team India’s director from 2014-16, was later appointed as their head coach in 2017. It was then said that Kohli insisted on having him in the side after engaging in a controversy with then-coach Anil Kumble.
Ahead of a vital tour to the Australian island, Shastri was brought into the side, and rumour sparked that Kohli was asked whether he was the ‘yes man’ for the Indian skipper back then.
However, neglecting such rumours, Kohli said that this was the strangest thing he has heard in a long time. Rather, he claimed that Shastri was the man to whom he could open up on everything and also said ‘no’ the most number of times.
“About saying ‘yes’ all the time, that is the most bizarre thing I have heard,” Kohli said. “I don’t think there’s anyone who has said no to me more than him in Indian cricket. Honestly, because he’s one guy I can speak to and get an honest opinion, and he’ll tell me something that if it doesn’t need to be done, it doesn’t need to be done. I’ve made more changes to my game listening to him than anyone else in the past,” Kohli was quoted in a report on ESPNcricinfo.
Kohli also said that under head coach Ravi Shastri, he has made the most changes to his game and technique.
Team India’s success under Ravi Shastri and Virat Kohli, the Coach-Skipper duo
India had immense success after the appointment of Ravi Shastri as the head coach, especially as India was crowned the No. 1 Test side in the world. India won 22 of their 39 Tests in the period between 2017 and 2021, which was a record for India as they also enlisted their first-ever series victory in the longest format of the game on Australian soil.
It was during this period and under Kohli’s captaincy that India entered the second consecutive final in the 2017 Champions Trophy, though they lost to arch-rivals Pakistan in a humiliating final. Their reign also included the 2019 World Cup final exit and 2021 T20 World Cup group-stage exit, which marked the end of Shastri’s career.
India was also the best-ranked ODI team, as they won 44 of the 67 matches in the longer format of white-ball cricket. Their T20 success, though not eminent, was considered very good. The Shastri-Kohli bond was then largely peaked by the media during the days.
