Virat Kohli, the great batter, has been hailed by former India head coach Ravi Shastri as the best player he has ever coached for the national team for his ability to “dominate, be the face, play hard, but play fair.”
In a video posted to Sky Sports’ YouTube page, Ravi Shastri, who shared a strong rapport with Kohli as captain and coach from 2017 to 2021, showered the superstar with adulation, calling some of his seasons in Australia, South Africa, and England “unreal.”
Even with the likes of Jasprit Bumrah, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, and Cheteshwar Pujara, Shastri acknowledged that Kohli was the best player he had ever coached.
“I would say Kohli, the batsman in his pomp, was unbelievable because in those five years when India were No. 1 in the red-ball format, some of the innings he played in Australia, South Africa, England, across formats, were unreal,” Shastri said.
After MS Dhoni retired, he went on to say that Kohli was the player he considered to be the “leader” of the team.
“Once I took over the job, and once Dhoni had finished, he did a magnificent job. I think his primary skills as a batsman, his ability to dominate, be in the face, play hard but play fair, and his desire to win and take the game forward, were exceptional,” Shastri explained.
Despite not winning any ICC titles, Shastri’s time as India’s head coach was filled with unforgettable memories. Under his leadership, India’s strong home record helped them regain their position at the top of the Test rankings after a protracted hiatus.
In addition, he led a youthful Indian team to two historic series wins in Australia—an accomplishment never before seen in Indian cricket. The team’s accomplishments were largely attributed to the courageous Virat Kohli, whose performances were essential to these triumphs.
During the 2014 series, Kohli succeeded Dhoni as Test captain, and he made an immediate impression in Adelaide with twin hundreds on his first Test captaincy appearance. He dominated red-ball cricket over the following five years, amassing 4,492 runs at a remarkable average of 63.27, including 18 hundreds.
Reflecting on that transition, Shastri said, “Working with him [Kohli] was great. He’s the one man I identified who could lead the team. Once I took over the job and Dhoni was finished, he did a magnificent job. His primary skills as a batter were to dominate the bowling unit, be in the face, and play hard. He always wanted to win and take the game forward.”
When asked which era he would have most liked to play in, Shastri responded, “I would have loved to play against Ben Stokes; he’s a world-class all-rounder. Alongside him, there are so many cricketers. You look at the Australian bowling unit-Cummins, Hazlewood, Nathan Lyon. I could have played alongside them as the left-arm spinner.”
Regarding his regrets as head coach, Shastri stated that he had “no regrets whatsoever,” but acknowledged that the team was “a little unlucky.”
“We should have won an ICC trophy. At that time, we had the team to do it, but we still played some great cricket,” he concluded.
India finished as runners-up in the ICC World Test Championship 2019–21, losing to New Zealand in the final, and advanced to the semi-finals of the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup under Kohli-Shastri.
Virat amassed 10,603 runs at an incredible average of 71.16 in 164 games and 186 innings between 2016 and 2019, including 36 hundreds and 46 fifties, with a peak score of 254*. With the help of a stellar fast-bowling lineup that included Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav, and Jasprit Bumrah, India emerged as a strong Test team under his leadership.
During his time as a Test batter from 2016 to 2019, Kohli accumulated 4,208 runs at an average of 66.79 and a strike rate of 61.88 in 43 Test matches. He also amassed 16 hundreds and 10 fifties worldwide, producing match-winning knocks under the most trying circumstances.
Though he continued to play well in white-ball cricket, Kohli’s Test performance declined in the 2020s. Prior to the England tour, he announced his retirement from red-ball cricket in May. He has only three Test hundreds since 2020 and an average of just over 30.
