ENG vs IND 2018: 'Much-Needed' Rest has Benefited Virat Kohli - Ravi Shastri

Assuring Virat Kohli has fully recovered from his neck injury, India head coach, Ravi Shastri said the skipper would be stronger than ever on the upcoming England tour.

To prepare himself for the England tour, Virat Kohli had signed up with county outfit Surrey for June.

Such was his desperation to get used to the conditions that he gave the one-off Test against Afghanistan a miss. However, his hopes got dashed due to a neck injury he suffered during the Indian Premier League 2018.

As a result, he had to undergo rehabilitation to regain fitness. And although missing out on the county stint might have robbed him of some ideal preparation for the England tour, Shastri feels the much-needed rest has only benefitted Kohli.

“Physical tiredness is one thing but being mentally fatigued means to say that you want to score a hundred, but your body doesn’t want to go the extra mile. The rest has benefitted Virat,” Shastri told IndiaTV.

“His thought process is now fresh and is quite positive. The rest was much needed,” Shastri added.

Kohli had not played competitive cricket since May 19 when he represented Royal Challengers Bangalore. He will be in action during the upcoming T20I series against Ireland, starting June 27th.

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Kohli will be looking to make amends for his disastrous show in England in 2014. During the tour, he had endured a torrid time, scoring only 134 runs from ten innings, as India had lost the series 3-1.

He scored 1, 8, 25, 0, 39, 28, 0, 7, 6 and 20 in the five Tests and finished the series with an average of 13.40.

And Shastri is confident Kohli will score well this time in England.

“That was four years ago. Over a thousand days have passed by. I don’t remember what I did four years ago. It’s water under the bridge now,” he said.

“He (Kohli) has been scoring runs since then, and his approach would be as the way it has been in the last three-four series. His approach wouldn’t change according to the tour, like the way you saw him in South Africa, the same way it will be in England,” he added.