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Cricket Players'Ganguly, Dravid haven't won WC. Can we label them bad players?': Shastri backs Kohli; 'You're judged by how you play'
Former head coach Ravi Shastri backed Virat Kohli, insisting that a player is judged by how he plays.
Virat Kohli sent shock saves throughout the cricket fraternity when he announced his decision to step down as Test captain of the Indian team earlier this month. The 33-year-old, who was already succeeded by Rohit Sharma as the limited-overs skipper, ended his leadership stint in Tests as India's best.
While Kohli enjoyed a terrific captaincy record across all formats, a lack of an ICC trophy in the cabinet remained a major point of criticism. Under Kohli, India lost in the final of the 2017 Champions Trophy, semi-finals of the 2019 World Cup, final of the inaugural World Test Championship, and were eliminated in the group stages of the T20 World Cup in 2021. Former India head coach Ravi Shastri, who had been at the position for a large part of Kohli's stint as captain, has now defended India's star batter on that front.
“Many big players have not won a World Cup. That's alright. (Sourav) Ganguly, (Rahul) Dravid, (Anil) Kumble also have not won. So can we label them as bad players?” Shastri told PTI.
"You can't generalise. You go and play. How many World Cup winning captains do we have. Sachin Tendulkar had to play six World Cups before winning it," he pointed out.
“At the end of the day, you are judged by how you play, are you an ambassador of the game? Do you play the game with integrity, and do you play for a long period of time? That's how you judge players at the end of it all.”
Shastri also said that he didn't watch a “single ball” of the recently-concluded series between India and South Africa but insisted that one loss signify a potential downfall of the side.
"If you lose one series, you people start criticising... You can't win every game, there will be wins and losses," Shastri said.
"How can the standard go down suddenly? For five years, you have been number one side in the world. As I said, I've not followed a single ball in the series. But I don't think there will be too much change in Virat Kohli."
