While Dhoni was my captain, my eye was on him: Ravi Shastri showers praise on ‘uncut diamond’ Virat Kohli

Former India coach Ravi Shastri shared a great bond with Virat Kohli who was the captain of the national side till the end of Shastri’s managing tenure and the former selector recently called the player an uncut diamond.

“There was a lot of individual brilliance but I wanted to see team brilliance. I wanted to win and to make Test cricket paramount and identified an uncut diamond in Virat Kohli. While (MS) Dhoni was my captain, my eye was on him (Kohli). I told him very early in my second month: ‘It’ll take time but watch, observe, be ready (for the captaincy)'” Shastri said in an interview with Michael Atherton.

“Kohli was fully engaged with Test cricket. He was passionate. He was prepared to do the hard yards and was prepared to play tough cricket, which fitted my way of thinking. When you play Australia or Pakistan you’ve got to have a ‘no complaints’, ‘no excuses’ attitude.” He was always on the same page with the erstwhile skipper on creating a potent pace force. The rest was history as India won back-to-back Test series in Australia and drew five-Test series in England.” he added.

The former India player also reserved special praise for Jasprit Bumrah and said that the pacer did not appreciate being stereotyped as just a “white ball specialist.”

“I remember my first call to him, it was in Kolkata. I asked him would he be interested in Test cricket. He said that would be the biggest day of his life. He was labelled as a white-ball cricketer without asking him. But I knew. I wanted to see how hungry he was. I told him to get ready, be prepared. I told him I was going to unleash him in South Africa,” Shastri recalled

“He’s so excited to be playing and doing well in Test cricket. He was desperate to play Test cricket with Virat Kohli. They know, at the end of the day, no one remembers white ball averages. They will always remember your numbers in Test cricket,” the 61-year-old added.

Disclaimer: The copyright of this article belongs to the original author. Reposting this article is solely for the purpose of information dissemination and does not constitute any investment advice. If there is any infringement, please contact us immediately. We will make corrections or deletions as necessary. Thank you.