But on Wednesday, in an unusually emotional moment, Shastri let his guard down. Speaking on Sony Sports ahead of India’s five-match Test series against England, the veteran couldn’t hide the lump in his throat as he opened up about Kohli’s sudden retirement from Test cricket.
It wasn’t a decision made overnight. Kohli had, in fact, confided in Shastri as early as April, as the latter earlier revealed on The ICC Review. Yet, now that the decision is final, it has left even someone as composed as Shastri visibly moved.
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Shastri felt that Kohli, who is often hailed as ‘an ambassador for Test match cricket’, deserved a better way to say farewell to the format been synonymous with, indicating that his retirement could have been handled better.
“Virat has announced his retirement from Test matches, which is sad, you know, because he’s a great player. A great player. It’s only when you go that people truly realise how big a player you were. Stats don’t do justice — it’s about the way he carried himself, especially as an ambassador for Test match cricket, particularly overseas. The way he played at Lord’s, and how his team turned things around — it was unreal. And I’m glad I was a part of it,” Shastri said.
“I feel sad that he’s gone the way he has — suddenly. I think it could have been handled better, maybe with more communication.”
Shastri further said that the Ajit Agarkar-led BCCI selection committee missed the opportunity in naming Kohli as the Test captain again.
“If I had anything to do with it, I would’ve made him captain straight after Australia,” he added.
The Delhi batter had stepped down from Test captaincy back in 2022, after the end of the tour of South Africa, after which Rohit Sharma was confirmed as the all-format skipper. In the wake of the series loss against New Zealand and Australia, reports had emerged that a senior player in the squad was keen to take up the leadership role. Although the name was never revealed, it was widely speculated to be Kohli.
Shastri’s words, though indirectly, hinted that it was Kohli who wanted to captain India again, but it was a negative from the BCCI.
Eventually, Shubman Gill was named as the captain of the Indian Test team after Rohit had retired from the format just five days before Kohli’s announcement.
