Dhoni and Kohli are two 'alpha males' in the same dressing room, says Ravi Shastri

11/06/2016

Former cricketer Ravi Shastri has said that Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni are two big personalities in the Indian dressing room, but with a lot of respect for each other. Shastri also felt that the BCCI should implement a part of Lodha Committee's reforms and make its administration more transparent.

With calls for Kohli taking over the mantle of the limited overs side from MS Dhoni growing by the day, former team India director Ravi Shastri said that Dhoni still has a long way to go before Kohli taking over the reins.

Shastri said, "Now, Dhoni has a lot of cricket left in him, his fitness is also good. He was facing pressure as captain for the last 10-12 years, now the time has come for another player to take over his responsibility in the next 12 to 18 months," in an interview to India Today.

"On the other hand, Dhoni knows Kohli is a deadly player and how to extract the maximum out of him. They are, in a sense, both 'alpha males' in a single dressing room. Yet they have tremendous respect for each other,” he said.

Shastri also went on to heap praise on Virat Kohli saying that the 28-year old is capable of achieving incredible records.

"At the age of 28, Kohli has made 26 or 27 centuries in one-day, he has made 35 to 40 international hundreds. He has ten more years of cricket, and if he continues to play, without injury, then anything can happen. But we should not put pressure on him because Sachin Tendulkar has a marvellous record (100 centuries). You get men like Sachin once in a lifetime. Now that Kohli has 40 international hundreds, and he has ten years more to play, nobody knows what can happen," Shastri said.

The former Indian all-rounder reiterated his previous opinions about the BCCI-Lodha Committee issue saying that implementing all the recommendations made by the committee will not be practical to run the cricket administration in the country.

"Reforms in cricket are needed and 80 to 85 per cent recommendations of Lodha Committee should be implemented. In some cases, we should give 'danda' (be stern), it is needed,” Shastri said.

“80 to 85 percent of Lodha Committee recommendations should be implemented, but problems can arise over remaining 15 percent recommendations due to practicalities," he added.

Shastri also questioned the popular belief of the BCCI being bad by saying, “If you think BCCI was that bad, how come we won three World Cups and we gave cricketers like Virat Kohli, Sachin Tendulkar, Kapil Dev and Sunil Gavaskar to the world?”

The 54-year old is also of the opinion that a selection panel consisting of five selectors from five different zones is needed to run the selection process smoothly.

"If you want fair selections, in a big country like India, which has more players than the players combined in other cricket-playing countries, at least five national selectors representing five zones are needed, along with 10 talent scouts, two for each zone," Shastri said.

"Even now there can be a dialogue (between BCCI and Lodha committee)," he added.