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Former India head coach Ravi Shastri candidly uses some adjectives to describe Virat Kohli as a cricketer on the ground, and the opposites as well, to portray Virat Kohli as a human being off the ground.
Ravi Shastri and Virat Kohli, together, attended a conversation for a YouTube video on the One8 channel. In the long conversation, they talked about various aspects of cricket and about themselves as well. The host asks Shastri to mention the biggest myths about Virat Kohli.
'Arrogant, spoiled brat, over the top...' - Ravi Shastri
Shastri takes a few seconds before taking off. In response to the question, the words the former team India head coach was throwing were one of the best hooks in the whole 38-minute-long video.
“Arrogant, spoiled brat, over the top, on edge. Everything is true, but on the field, totally opposite off it. You know. I love people who can switch on like that and then switch,” Ravi Shastri said about Virat Kohli.
Team India touched new heights during the era of Ravi Shastri and Virat Kohli
When Ravi Shastri was appointed as the head coach of Team India, Virat Kohli was the captain. Since then, both of them have shared a close bond. With Virat as the captain and Shastri as the coach, the Indian cricket team displayed a rejuvenated performance match after match. While Shastri tried to inject the must-win attitude into the team, Virat was in his prime, guiding the team with sheer aggression.
In the Tests, Team India was then on a different level. Even during the overseas matches, where Indian batters struggled more often against the seamers, Kohli and Co. continued their confident performance across the departments.
During the era of Shastri-Kohli, India claimed their first-ever Test series victory in Australia, winning the four-match series 2-1 during 2018-19. In 2020-21, despite multiple injury concerns, the team famously won at the Gabba to seal a 2-1 series victory.
Shastri compared Kohli with Vivian Richards
When the discussion is about Kohli, there must be some discussion around the fitness regime. The host asks Ravi Shastri to mention someone during the 80s who was brilliant in terms of fitness, like Virat.
Shastri mentioned the West Indies cricket great Vivian Richards. According to him, Richards was a rare kind of cricketer in that era, who was a live wire on the ground. From taking catches to covering the ground, Vivian Richards was stunning in Ravi Shastri’s eyes.
“You know it brings when I played so much with Richards, and when I see Virat. I think of bridges because he had that kind of intensity on the field when he was leading, when he was an inflictor. Run out from somewhere," Shastri says in the same video.
"Take a brilliant catch, you know, in the face of the opposition, is everywhere in the field. It's like a live wire, very similar and then played when they bat with that kind of intensity, booking the bowler in the eye and taking them to you,” he added further.
