Former India coach Ravi Shastri has hinted that Virat Kohli could soon relinquish his leadership duties in one-day internationals. Incidentally, Kohli stepped down as T20I captain after India’s ICC T20 World Cup 2021 campaign ended earlier this week.
The global T20 event also marked the end of Shastri’s as the head coach of the Indian team. Ravi Shastri along with bowling coach Bharat Arun and fielding coach R Sridhar was part of the Indian cricket team’s coaching staff since 2017.
🇮🇳 ❤️ pic.twitter.com/Ds7okjhj9J
— Virat Kohli (@imVkohli) September 16, 2021
The former India cricketer believes Virat Kohli will soon step down as ODI captain to focus on his batting. However, the talismanic cricketer is expected to continue leading the Indian team in red-ball cricket.
In an interview with India Today, Ravi Shastri said:
“In red-ball cricket, India has been the No1 team in the world for the last 5 years under Virat Kohli. So unless he wants to give up or if he is mentally fatigued and says he wants to focus on his batting – which can happen in the near future, don’t think it will happen immediately – it can happen.”
“The same might happen with the ODI. He might say he wants to focus just on Test captaincy. It is his mind and body that will make that decision,” he added.
So far, Virat Kohli has led India in 95 ODI matches, winning 65 with a win percentage of 70.43.
“He won’t be the first” – Ravi Shastri on Virat Kohli stepping down as captain
Ravi Shastri believes Virat Kohli giving up captaincy will be a completely normal course of action which many players have done in the past.
“He won’t be the first, there are many players in the past who have had very successful tenures as captains and then given it up to focus on batting,” said Shastri.
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