India vs Australia | I would like to salute Virat Kohli, says Ravi Shastri

India managed to win a Test series in Australia after 71 years as the fourth and final Test match ended in a draw. The fifth day’s play in the last Test was called off because of rain when the Indian team was in the driver’s seat. The Virat Kohli-led side had won the first and third Test match in Adelaide and Melbourne earlier in this tour. 

The Indian coach lauded the efforts of the skipper and said that he plays Test cricket with a lot of passion. The former all-rounder also mentioned that Kohli is very expressive which makes him different than others.

"Past is history, future is a mystery. We have won today after 71 years and I'd like to live in the present. And salute my captain for being the captain of the team that beat Australia for the first time in Australia in a series," Shastri said during the press conference, reported PTI.

"I don't think anyone plays Test cricket with more passion than he does. At least I don't see any other international captain coming close to him on the field when it comes to showing that passion needed to play the game. He is very expressive, which is different to others. Other captains could have different personalities but Virat is someone who is in your face and it rubs off on all the youngsters who are watching the game in India.”

Shastri was a part of the World Cup-winning Indian team in 1983 and was the Player of the Tournament in 1985 World Championship of Cricket in Australia. India became champions in both the tournaments in England and Australia and the former all-rounder equated the series win to both the triumphs in 1983 and 1985. 

"I will tell you how satisfying it is for me. World Cup 1983, World Championship of Cricket 1985 - this is as big, or even bigger, because it is in the truest (Test) format of the game. It's Test cricket, which is meant to be the toughest," Shastri explained.

"And you have seen that transition happening over the last two-three years where guys in the team have become more and more confident, about their own ability and the ability of the team as well and it's made all the difference.”

India toured South Africa and England before travelling Down Under for the Test series in 2018. Speaking about the preparation before the Australian tour, Shastri informed, “This tour didn't start in Australia. This tour started 12 months ago in South Africa, where we said there's a certain brand of cricket that we are going to play, we will experiment with combinations, find out what suits the team the best and take it forward from there.”

"We learnt a lot in South Africa and we learnt a lot in England. We made mistakes, which we didn't make in this series. We learnt from those mistakes and fired it home properly. So the most satisfying part of this was it was a team that was working over those last 12 months," said Shastri.

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