Former Indian cricketer and ex-head coach Ravi Shastri has name-dropped Virat Kohli as the best player he has ever coached. Shastri commended Kohli’s ‘unreal’ innings in the SENA nations during the former’s time as head coach. On being asked whether he experienced any regrets during his coaching stint with India, Shastri admitted that he had ‘no regrets whatsoever’.
The Shastri-Virat Kohli era was characterized by a prominent home dominance in the red-ball format.
They had also assembled a solid fast-bowling attack of Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma and Umesh Yadav. The 2016-19 period can easily be considered as Kohli’s peak as batter and captain. Shastri, who coached the Indian cricket team full-time from 2017 to 2021, revealed the particular traits of Kohli which made him a run-machine during his prime.
“I would say Kohli, the batter 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. Once I took over the job, and once Dhoni had finished, he did a magnificent job. I think his primary skills as a batter, 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 said via Sky Sports.
Despite being a power-packed side, the Indian team failed to win any ICC trophy with Shastri at the helm despite reaching close on multiple occasions. The Men in Blue reached the semi-finals of the Cricket World Cup in 2019 (lost to New Zealand by 18 runs) and emerged as runners-up of the 2019-21 cycle of the World Test Championship (lost to New Zealand by eight wickets). They also lost the Champions Trophy finals to Pakistan in 2017.
Kohli scored a total of 10,603 runs in 164 international matches (186 innings) between 2016 and 2019. During this same period, the New Delhi-born’s batting average remained at an astonishing 71.16 across formats in international cricket.
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