Kohli stepped down as Test captain following the 2-1 series loss to South Africa earlier this month.
Virat stepped down as Test captain following the 2-1 series loss to South Africa earlier this month. He led the side for seven years with tremendous success, registering 40 wins from 68 Tests. Only Graeme Smith, Ricky Ponting, and Steve Waugh have won more matches than him as captain in Test cricket.
In an exclusive chat with India Today, Shastri said the cricket community should respect Virat Kohli's decision to step down as Test captain.
"Whether Virat could have continued to lead India in Tests. For sure, he could have led India for at least 2 years because next two years India would be playing at home and who is coming over - 9 and 10 jacks, going by the rankings. But he would have then made it to 50-60 wins under his captaincy and a lot of people will not be able to digest that fact," Shastri stated.
"Two years, he could have carried on but we should respect his decision. In any other country, this kind of record is incredible. You won against Australia, England and lost 1-2 to South Africa but still, there are debates if he should be the captain or not," he added.
Shastri, who was part of the Kohli-led Indian team as chief coach from 2017 to 2021, heaped praise on the former skipper’s captaincy, saying very few in the world possess a record that the star batter has as a leader.
The highlight of Kohli’s tenure was the Test series victory in Australia in 2018-19 and making it into the inaugural World Test Championship (WTC) final. He also led India to two Test series wins in West Indies and Sri Lanka. Under his captaincy, Team India were leading 2-1 in England last year before the series got postponed due to COVID cases in the visiting camp.
"Virat Kohli led India in 5-6 years in Tests and out of those, five years India was no. 1. No Indian captain has this kind of record and there are only a handful of captain world over with this kind of record. So when the most successful captain decides to step down as captain it's an individual's decision because his record of 40 wins is unprecedented.
"So he only knows how much is he enjoying captaincy. When Sachin Tendulkar and MS Dhoni were not enjoying captaincy, they left. Similarly, when Virat thought that he had won 40 matches, six years he had been leading and now he wants to enjoy his cricket. He wants to focus on his batting and release a bit of pressure and it happens with a lot of individuals.
"Sunil Gavaskar, Kapil Dev and Sachin Tendulkar quit captaincy to focus on their game, so Virat also had the same thing on his mind," Shastri added.