Former Team India head coach Ravi Shastri has backed Virat Kohli to keep playing top level cricket for 6-7 more years, even if he has to reconsider captaincy at some stage.
Shastri, who recently ended his four-year tenure as coach after India's campaign in the T20 World Cup concluded, says Kohli is the best ambassador for Test cricket and that he expects him to play the format for as long as his body allows him to.
The 59-year-old shared a warm working relationship with the Indian captain and their partnership resulted in a lot of success for India both home and away, even though an ICC title eluded them.
Talking to Rajdeep Sardesai for India Today, Shastri spoke on Kohli's future, “He is hungry. He is fitter than anyone in the team and then your longevity only increases. The captaincy is his decision. If anything, he might say no to the white ball but red ball, he should carry on because he has been the best ambassador for Test cricket over the past 5 years. The passion with which he plays and the energy he gets to the field and the success, all of it should make him carry on,”
Going forward, Shastri doesn't rule out Kohli playing as a specialist batsman or just leading India in one format i.e. Test cricket. He has already stepped down as T20I captain as part of his workload management.
“In red ball cricket, India has been the No 1 team in the world for the last 5 years under Virat Kohli. So unless he wants to give up or if he is mentally fatigued and says he wants to focus on his batting - which can happen in the near future, don't think it will happen immediately - it can happen,”
“The same might happen with the ODI. He might say he wants to focus just on Test captaincy. It is his mind and body that will make that decision. He won't be the first, there are many players in the past who have had very successful tenures as captains and then given it up to focus on batting,” said Shastri.
Reacting to the negative stuff written about Kohli in the media, Shastri said, “He deserves his due as a captain, what he has achieved is unreal. What he has got used to is that there will be things written which is just there to stir the pot. A sportsman's ability to ignore all that is what will make him play longer than he thinks. Ignorance is bliss. If he follows that and I think he is doing it, then he will not have a problem to play for another 6-7 years. Planted crap will always be there.”
(With India Today inputs)
