Virat Kohli is the boss, Iām merely there to take pressure off him, admits Ravi Shastri
Team Indiaās head coach Ravi Shastri has labelled skipper Virat Kohli as the ābossā and admitted that his role in the team is to merely support the captain and ensure that the players are well-prepared. Having been appointed as coach in 2017, Shastri has now worked with Kohli for three years.
When Ravi Shastri was appointed as the head coach of the Indian Menās Cricket Team in July 2017 by the Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC), comprising Sourav Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman, there was instant backlash over the decision. Many felt that the 57-year-old was nothing more than a āyes manā and was not capable of doing an able job at the top level, given that he had little experience coaching at the highest level before taking over the prestigious role.
However, Shastri has since defied critics and while his āin your faceā attitude has not gone down well with many, he has formed indestructible chemistry with skipper Virat Kohli and the duo, over the course of the last 30 months, has helped the Indian side dominate world cricket. Speaking about his role as coach, Shastri insisted that it is Kohli who is the real ābossā and asserted that the role of the coach is nothing but to support the captain and ensure that the players are well-prepared.Ā
"The captain is the boss, I always believe that," Kohli told Rob Key, Nasser Hussain and Michael Atherton in a Sky Sports podcast.
"The job of the coaching staff, as far as I'm concerned, is to prepare the guys in the best possible way to be able to go out there and play brave, positive, fearless cricket.
The 57-year-old, who was a top-tier all-rounder himself for the Indian side in the 80s, believes that a coach must leave it to the captain to call the shots and stated that the role of a mentor is to merely encourage the skipper - and subsequently his players - to execute the plans that are already in place. A former captain himself, Shastri asserted that it is always the skipper who ācontrols the showā.Ā
"The job of the coaching staff, as far as I'm concerned, is to prepare the guys in the best possible way to be able to go out there and play brave, positive, fearless cricket.
"The captain leads from the front. Yes, we are there to take off the burden but you leave him to do his job in the middle. The captain sets the tone and is encouraged to set the tone. In the middle, he controls the show.