Former Indian head coach Ravi Shastri shared a great bonhomie with former skipper Virat Kohli when the duo took Indian cricket to new heights. Shastri revealed Virat used to jump out of his seat when an Indian batter was dismissed and he had to go in next.
The former Indian all-rounder said he had to calm Virat down and used to ask him to wait a bit before going out in the middle.
Ravi Shastri said on LisTNR Sport podcast, “At times I had to calm him ( Kohli) down. If a wicket went, he would jump out of his seat. I would say, ‘Calm down man, let him (dismissed batter) cross halfway, don’t meet him when he’s just 10 yards away from the stumps. Let him come near the boundary line, then cross him’. He was like a cat on a hot tin roof ready to punch out there. That’s Virat for you.”
Shastri added that Kohli inspired the next generation of players to work hard on their fitness.
“It did because he would show them up otherwise. When you are running between the wickets, if you are a lazy bugger, you’ll soon find out. He’ll be completing two runs and you’ll be trying to finish the second and he’ll be looking for the third while you’ve not even finished your second run. Immediately the message then is, ‘ Get to that bloody gym and start training and get fitter’.”
Meanwhile, Shastri hailed Kohli for his work ethic to succeed at the top level. The former coach recalled an instance when Kohli was dismissed early in Capetown and he went to the nets to work on his game.
“It was unreal, his work ethics were special. I’ve never seen anyone like that. Forget the gym, I remember him getting out early in Capetown ( 2018 Test series in South Africa). And he came at the nets at the Centurion and he batted for 45 minutes, then went back in and asked Raghu, a slinger who can crank it up at 150-160 from 16 yards to bowl. And he went after Virat because Virat wanted that,” said Shastri (via the aforementioned source).
“And it was a dodgy pitch so I was a little worried as a coach. The pitch was dodgy and this guy (Kohli) is asking him (Raghu) to go flat out and you’ve got a Test match starting in two days. But he was relentless and then at the ground, day after day there is a routine. So the energy he would bring to the table day in and day out was unreal.”
Kohli will be seen in action in the three-match ODI series against Australia.
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