Former India head coach Ravi Shastri has recalled a moment when he had to hold back star India batter Virat Kohli during the 2014-15 Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT). In the opening Test in Adelaide, Kohli was struck on the helmet by Mitchell Johnson on the first ball he faced, starting a heated series between the two teams as well.
During a conversation on the ‘One8’ YouTube channel, Shastri recalled: “I tell you where this was, Melbourne, right? He was having a fabulous series and it got off to a start, right? And he and Mitch were constantly, you know, having a go because the first ball he played him, he hit him on the head and then he got 100 in each innings. Then we reached Melbourne and he’s off to a start at lunchtime.”
“So both going, walking outside and going. As he enters the dressing room, he’s looking at Mitch like this, you know, catch him. ‘Come, come, come here. No, come, come here. Focus on your batting.’ He got 160, you know, but there also he was looking. I said, ‘This is off the field, go chill.’ But that was, you know, that’s how we played against them,” he further added.
However, Virat Kohli added that during his time with Ravi Shastri in the dressing room, the team often had their best get-togethers after a series defeat rather than after a victory, as it helped relax them as well.
“The one thing that I remember clearly that stood out during our times was we had the best get-togethers after a loss. After we won, we were not really interested in, you know, celebrating. After a loss, we used to get together like we won a series. So that just used to relax the atmosphere in a way, like they’re so relaxed about it,” he shared.
“Yeah, we can get up again and get the job done. And I remember Sri Lanka. We lost the first Test in 2015 in Galle. Out of a winning position, we lost the game. And that evening we got together, and I think that was probably the best evening we had as a team in the whole tenure. And we won the series 2-1,” he concluded.
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