Former Indian head coach Ravi Shastri recalled an incident when he had to hold back Virat Kohli during the 2014-15 Border-Gavaskar series against Australia. In the series opener at Adelaide, Kohli was hit on the helmet by gun fast bowler Mitchell Johnson, forcing the Australians to recall the passing of Phil Hughes.
From there on, Kohli and Johnson were continuously exchanging words on the field during the third Test match at the iconic MCG. Kohli was visibly pumped up but Shastri had to step in, to cool off the talismanic batter.
Shastri said on One8 YouTube Channel, “I tell you where this was, Melbourne, right? He was having a fabulous series and it got off to a start, right? And he and Mitch were constantly, you know, having a go because the first ball he played him, he hit him on the head and then he got 100 in each innings. Then we reached Melbourne and he’s off to a start at lunchtime.”
“So both going, walking outside and going. As he enters the dressing room, he’s looking at Mitch like this, you know, catch him. ‘Come, come, come here. No, come, come here. Focus on your batting.’ He got 160, you know, but there also he was looking. I said, ‘This is off the field, go chill.’ But that was, you know, that’s how we played against them,” he added.
On the other hand, Virat Kohli recalled that they used to get together, especially after a loss, which used to gel the team together.
“The one thing that I remember clearly that stood out during our times was we had the best get-togethers after a loss. After we won, we were not really interested in, you know, celebrating. After a loss, we used to get together like we won a series. So that just used to relax the atmosphere in a way, like they’re so relaxed about it.”
“Yeah, we can get up again and get the job done. And I remember Sri Lanka. We lost the first Test in 2015 in Galle. Out of a winning position, we lost the game. And that evening we got together, and I think that was probably the best evening we had as a team in the whole tenure. And we won the series 2-1,” he added.
Kohli is currently out of action due to a hamstring injury.
