Ravi Shastri hints at Virat Kohli giving up ODI captaincy too

Former India head coach Ravi Shastri says that Virat Kohli might give up One-Day International (ODI) captaincy as well in the near future to focus on his batting and just leading the Test side.

Kohli played his last T20 International (T20I) as captain in the T20 World Cup 2021 match against Namibia. Overall, he has led India 50 times in the format and has won 30 of them. The Kohli-led side failed to make it to the semi-final of the T20 World Cup, following losses to Pakistan and New Zealand.

Shastri reckons Kohli is mentally fatigued and wants to focus just on his batting.

“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,” Ravi Shastri told India Today.  

“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 and captains and then given it up to focus on batting,” said Shastri.

Kohli has led India since 2014 but it was not until 2017 that he took over as captain in the limited-overs as well. Following the Namibia game, Kohli said he was relieved and stressed on the need to manage his workload.

"Relief firstly (emotions). As I said it's been an honour, but things have to be kept in the right perspective," Kohli said.

"This was the right time for me to manage my workload. It's been six-seven years of intense cricket every time we take the field and it takes a lot out of you. It's been great fun, great bunch of guys and we've really performed well as a team," he added.