Virat Kohli is one of the greats of the game, said former India coach Ravi Shastri while paying tribute to the former India captain. Kohli recently retired from T20I cricket after helping India win the T20 World Cup 2024 with a classy 76 in the final against South Africa.
Ravi Shastri praised top batsman Virat Kohli for his longevity and flexibility across forms. Given their long history of working together as coach and captain, Shastri and Kohli have a strong bond.
Shastri stated that he did not want to compare players from various generations. However, given Kohli’s consistency across forms over the last decade, Shastri believes few players can match him.
“You cannot compare players of different eras. But if someone can stay on top of the sport for that long, this showed his versatility, his ability to adapt and just shows his skillsets to do that. Not many can do that. But he has shown why he is different,” Shastri said on ICC Review.
Kohli remains the only player to have won two Player of the Tournament awards in T20 World Cup history. He also won the Player of the Tournament award in the 2023 ODI World Cup.
Virat Kohli has dominated the decade across all three formats: Ravi Shastri
Virat Kohli is presumably the second-greatest batter in ODI cricket after Sachin Tendulkar as he nears the 14,000-run mark in the format. He broke Sachin Tendulkar’s record of 49 centuries in ODIs during the 2023 World Cup, scoring in 50th ton in the format.
He also broke Tendulkar’s record of most runs in one edition of the ICC World Cup (673), when Kohli scored 765 runs in the 2023 edition of the tournament. He hit 9 fifty-plus scores including three centuries.
Ravi Shastri believes Virat Kohli’s name belongs beside some of the finest players the game has ever seen. He discussed how Joe Root, Steve Smith, and Rohit Sharma excelled in one format whereas Kohli was at his best in all formats for a long period.
“I think one of the greats of the game. I think he dominated that decade across formats of the game. When you look at one player who dominated all three formats of the game for a period of ten years, it had to be Virat Kohli. You would get Joe Root in one format, Steve Smith in one format, Rohit Sharma in one format. But this guy was in the top three across formats,” Shastri stated.
Virat Kohli has been in action in the ongoing ODI series against Sri Lanka but has not been able to score big with a cumulative 38 runs in 2 innings.
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