How the Kohli-Shastri partnership turned India into a real force in overseas conditions

When Virat Kohli reflects on his Test career, it is likely he will look at his partnership with former coach Ravi Shastri with great pride. The two, captain and coach, proved to be a perfect fit — aggressive, not ready to take a backward step, showing no hesitation in taking strong decisions.

Under the Virat Kohli-Ravi Shastri, the Indian Test team entered a golden period. (Satyabrata Tripathy/HT Photo)

Extroverts both, they would provoke the opposition, even ruffle the feathers in their own dressing room to keep players on their toes, but their success means the Kohli-Shastri era will go down as the golden period of India’s Test team — the high point being the 2018-19 series win in Australia , with India becoming the first Asian team to beat Australia at home.

Kohli announced his retirement from Test cricket on Monday, marking an end to an illustrious 14-year-old career, and Shastri, who served as India’s head coach during most of Kohli’s captaincy tenure, lauded his career.

“Can’t believe you are done. You are a modern-day GIANT and were a fantastic ambassador for Test match cricket in every way you played and captained. Thank you for the lasting memories you’ve given to everyone, and to me in particular. It’s something I will cherish for life. Go well, champ,” Shastri posted on social media.

The two first worked together when the former India all-rounder took over as the director of Indian cricket team for a period of eight months from India’s tour of England till the 2015 World Cup. Kohli was coming off a disastrous 2014 tour of England where he averaged 13.40 in five Tests.

Shastri helped take the pressure off Kohli. The results were instantaneous. On the tour of Australia in 2014-15, the batsman hit four centuries in eight innings at an average of 86.50. In the middle of the series, he was appointed the Test team’s captain.

“You can’t pinpoint one thing, you got to have minds that are similar when it comes to the way forward, what’s your end goal, how you want to achieve it, how you want to build your team, I think a lot of things fell in place from the beginning and hence that kind of success,” Shastri told HT in March 2022 when asked about their partnership during an interview on the eve of Kohli’s 100th Test match.

In July 2017, the Kohli-Shastri team got back together when Shastri was appointed as the head coach of Indian cricket team. For connoisseurs of Test cricket, a thrilling period followed. It was the start of a tough cycle that saw India play away tours against South Africa, England and Australia.

Doing well overseas defined Kohli’s term. As captain, he was driven by the desire to chase victories in SENA countries and he led by example in that quest. The 2018-19 tour to Australia will go down as Kohli’s finest hour as captain when he captained India to a historic series win.

Shastri helped his captain galvanize the troops by changing their mindset. At home, they routed all opposition and took everyone by surprise with their aggressive body language during the 2017-18 South Africa series.

After losing the first two Tests, Kohli led his side to victory in the third Test on a minefield of a pitch at Johannesburg’s Wanderers Stadium, where the ball threatened the limbs and head of the batters.

“We wanted to compete; there was no point in going overseas and then just accepting the inevitable. You go there and say, it is the same pitch for both sides, let’s compete. I mean, winning and losing keeps happening but give it your best shot. Get yourself in a position to win games, which means you have to take 20 wickets, you know all that kind of stuff,” said Shastri, who credited the transformation to the fitness culture initiated by Kohli. It was one area where the previous India players had always lagged behind when up against the South Africans, Australians, New Zealanders or Englishmen.

“It was always about the challenge for Kohli and wanting to compete; the level of fitness… how he changed suddenly from what he was in 2008-09 – 2012 to the sudden transformation in the last five to six years in his work ethic, his diet, the kind of sacrifices he made.”

One of the factors in the team’s success was its planning and strategy. An astute brain, Shastri backed Kohli with his tactical inputs to outwit the opposition.

The captaincy, and perhaps the success he enjoyed, reflected in Kohli’s batting.

As a batter , Kohli played his best cricket from 2016 to 2019. His tremendous work ethic was backed by thorough analysis.

“He asked honest answers of his coaches, he would want to be watched very carefully, even for little, little things. He would see if his footwork was right, his balance was right, little things when sometimes when you are out on the road for so long you forget things which can creep in without your realising,” Shastri added in that interview.

“I would only tell him something if there was a need to tell him, or if you had answer to what you were going to tell him to do. It is pointless to say, this is not right, but what is the solution ; if you don’t have the solution then there’s no point saying it,” Shastri said, while picking Kohli’s 123 in the second Test of the 2018-19 series at Perth as the batsman’s finest .

India were under pressure after Australia scored 326 and it was a tough, pacey pitch to bat on. The tourists went on to lose the game but Kohli’s first innings knock received rave reviews.

For the former India coach, the qualities that stood out in Kohli were: “His work ethic, his professionalism, his hunger for success, hunger to be the best in the world. He has certainly done enough to go down as a great player.”

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