Virat Kohli was DESPERATE for captaincy? New book reveals shocking conversation between Kohli and Ravi Shastri

In 2016, India's future skipper Virat Kohli was evidently very eager to take on the role of One Day International (ODI) team captain but was given a pep talk by then-head coach Ravi Shastri. As per the book written by India's former fielding coach R Sridhar, named "Coaching Beyond: My Days With Indian Cricket Team," Kohli was told in no uncertain terms by Shastri that he had to wait until MS Dhoni, the then captain, finished his tenure. A year prior, it was Dhoni who had relinquished the Test captaincy and passed it on to Kohli.

Virat Kohli- Ravi Shastri conversation revealed by book

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Sridhar recollected an incident from Kohli's early days when he was already leading the Test squad but was the captain-in-waiting as far as the white ball squad was concerned. Sridhar wrote, “There was a point in 2016 when Virat was extremely excited to become the captain of the white-ball team as well. He said a few things that showed he was seeking the captaincy. One evening, Ravi called him and said, ‘Look, Virat, MS gave it (the captaincy) to you in red-ball cricket. You have to respect him. He will give it to you in limited-overs cricket, too, when the time is right. Unless you respect him now, tomorrow when you are the captain, you won’t get the respect from your team’."

Ravi Shastri’s message that served Kohli well

Sridhar stated that Shastri, in no uncertain terms, told Kohli to wait until Dhoni handed over the captaincy in limited-overs cricket. Shastri told Kohli, "Respect him (Dhoni) now, regardless of what is happening. It will come to you, you don’t have to chase after it."

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As per Sridhar, Kohli took the advice to heart and eventually, in a year's time, he got the white-ball captaincy too. Sridhar also wrote that Shastri was a "fabulous communicator who speaks his mind and doesn’t beat around the bush," and that he did the dirty job of informing players when they were dropped. It's worth mentioning that Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni shared a great camaraderie and the latter had revealed to the press how Kohli was the only cricketer to have wished him well after he stepped down from the position of Test captaincy.

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