Former India Head coach Ravi Shastri predict that Kohli may give up his captaincy to focus on his mental health and Kohli had already stepped down from his T20 role as a captain.
Former Head coach Ravi Shastri says Virat Kohli might give up captaincy in other formats. He had stepped down from his captaincy role in the T20 format after the end of their T20 World Cup campaign. The T20I World Cup was also the last assignment of Ravi Shastri with the Indian team as a Head Coach. Now, Indian opener Rohit Sharma is the next captain of the team India in T20 format along with the KL Rahul named as Vice-Captain.
Speaking to India today, Shastri was asked about Kohli giving up captaincy in other formats to manage his workloads better.
“In red-ball cricket, India has been number one for the last five years under his captaincy. Unless he wants to give it up or he is mentally fatigued where he says he wants to focus on my batting which can happen soon.
“It won’t happen immediately but it can happen. The same might happen with white-ball cricket, he might say he had enough and he focuses on Test captaincy. It is his mind and body that will make that decision. He won’t be the first.
“A lot of successful players have given up captaincy to focus on their batting for their side,”
Shastri said Kohli remains the fittest cricketer in the team by far.
“He is hungry for sure, fitter than anybody in the team. No doubt about that. When you are physically that fit, your longevity only increases. On the captaincy part of it, it will be his decision but I see if anything he might say no to white-ball cricket but the red ball, he should carry on because he has been the best ambassador for the Test cricket. That will make him carry on,”
said Shastri.
Shastri predicts many players in the team including Kohli taking long breaks to recover from bubble fatigue. He further said that it’s his mind and body that will make the decision.
“Especially, in these times it will reduce the pressure on the individual. A lot of players will take breaks. I foresee a lot of plays wanting breaks and rightly so. You need to switch off from the game from time to time.”
Shastri feels that playing the mega event right after the IPL was not good for the team but he didn’t want to blame the BCCI as the re-scheduling happened because of Covid-19.
“I won’t say that but because IPL was canceled in April, they had no choice. But I don’t think that will happen in the future. Kapil is right about the scheduling part because it will take its toll,”
he said when asked to comment on Kapil Dev’s statement on players prioritizing IPL over the country.
“It is not just the BCCI, every board has to be careful on schedule. Don’t forget, we play more cricket than any other team in the world if you add the IPL.”
Black Caps and Australia will face each other on Sunday for the T20 World Cup title.
“The teams that are playing in the final on Sunday, have hardly played in the last 6 months and you can see the difference. They have played enough to keep themselves sharp but they have got enough round of rest, at times forced as well,”
Shastri said.