India skipper Virat Kohli shares a very healthy camaraderie with head coach Ravi Shastri. When Shastri’s first term as chief coach ended after the World Cup 2019, Kohli had categorically said that he would love to have the former at the helm of affairs once more.
However, the cordial relationship has often created trouble for both, with some fans and media outlets accusing the coach of being a 'Yes Man' to the captain.
In an exclusive chat with India Today, Virat on Saturday (November 30) broke silence on these allegations, saying: "All the things we spoke about, you know what was being spoken and said about Anushka as well. I think most of these things are agenda-driven. I don't know whos why or what for, but to accept lies in that manner, it could not be anything else but agenda-driven.
"If it was random, one guy would write it and the others would not focus on it because it is not important enough."
The Indian captain also went on to say that these petty talks don’t bother Shastri one bit and their unwavering objective is to make India the best team of all time.
"In Ravi bhai's case, he is luckily a person who doesn't care at all. I mean a guy who has faced that attack (during his career) without a helmet and got runs there, he is not gonna be bothering about someone sitting at home and trolling him.
"Because if you want to troll a guy who has done that, Get Up, Go into that position, face those bowlers, do what he has done, and then have a debate with that guy. He is absolutely chilled out. He says our only focus is on how we can be the best team of all time.
"We want to leave behind a legacy that cricketers in the country say that we want to play like that as a team. We want to have questions asked on how many runs did you make to what happened to the team. If you want to create a sporting culture then ask them the right questions. So that is the mindset shift that we are in the process of so these petty things on the outside to him don't matter," Kohli said.
In August, Ravi Shastri retained his position as India's chief coach for the next two years. The decision to re-appoint him was unanimously taken by the Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) consisting of Kapil Dev, Anshuman Gaekwad and Shantha Rangaswamy.
(Inputs from India Today)
