Ravi Shastri shared his opinions indirectly on the ongoing saga between former India captains Virat Kohli and Sourav Ganguly who are seemingly at loggerheads. This was evident when where the former RCB skipper refused to shake hands with the Delhi Capitals (DC) director of cricket after the RCB vs DC IPL 2023 match in Bengaluru.
The two cricketers, who have both captained the Indian side with distinction, were captured in a viral video on social media sites appearing to ignore one another and not shaking hands. This gave rise to the theory that there is a dispute between the two Indian cricket icons that date back to the period when Kohli led his country as captain during Ganguly’s leadership of the BCCI.
As soon as Kohli left his position as T20I captain in October 2021, tensions between the pair began to develop. Two months later, the star batsman was replaced as ODI captain by Rohit Sharma. Rohit was given the opportunity to skipper India in all three formats after Kohli resigned as Test captain in January of last year.
In an interview before the 2022 tour of South Africa, the Delhi-born batter denied accusations that he and then-chief selector Chetan Sharma had asked Kohli not to resign as T20I captain. Ganguly was quoted as having said that.
After the match against DC, Virat Kohli unfollowed Sourav Ganguly on the popular social media network Instagram, and the former BCCI president did the same.
Ravi Shastri Indirectly Opines On Whether He Would Try To Ease The Tension Between Virat Kohli And Sourav Ganguly
Now Ravi Shastri gave his thoughts on the matter and responded to the question of whether he would wish to ease the tension under the current conditions. During a chat on ESPNCricinfo, the anchor asked Shastri how he would deal with the situation between Kohli and Shastri, without taking any names.
He said: “Depends on what my relationship is. If I don’t want to talk, I’ll just go past. But at the end of it, when you go and sit down, you feel that there’s always some room to grow up, no matter how old you are.”
Shastri was Team India’s head coach till the T20 World Cup in October-November 2021 and worked closely with Virat Kohli who captained India during that tenure.