Ravi Shastri: 'Would have failed as coach if Rohit Sharma's potential was not tapped'

Ravi Shastri on Rohit Sharma: Former India head coach Ravi Shastri has said that not tapping the batting talent of Rohit Sharma would have been a failure on his end. The 59-year-old has added that he was very clear in his mind to establish Rohit Sharma as a Test opener. Follow InsideSport.IN for more sports updates.

Ravi Shastri on Rohit Sharma: ‘Would have failed as a coach if I was unable to get the best out of him’

Rohit Sharma first opened in a Test match for India against South Africa in Visakhapatnam in October 2019. The swashbuckling right-hander slammed two hundreds in the match as his red-ball career took a complete u-turn. The 34-year-old has played 16 matches as an opener till now and scored 1462 runs at an average of 58.48. He is currently the top-ranked Indian batsmen in the ICC Test rankings. He sitting on the fifth place behind Marnus Labuschagne, Joe Root, Steve Smith and Kane Williamson.

“Very clear in my mind I wanted to do it (establish him as a Test opener). I thought if I can’t get the best out of him as a batsman then I am a failure as a coach because there was too much talent there,” Shastri told Star Sports.

Ravi Shastri talks about his similarity with Virat Kohli

The former India all-rounder reckoned that Kohli and him are “pretty aggressive” and the plan was always to go for a win without getting scared of the consequences. The famous captain-coach duo worked for four years together before Shastri’s contract ended with the T20 World Cup 2021. India went on to become the number one ranked Test team during the period, also reaching the final of the inaugural World Test Championship (WTC) and beating Australia twice in their backyard. In England this year, India were leading the 4-Test series 2-1 when the last match was postponed due to Covid-19 threats.

“We are both pretty aggressive, we played to win, we realised very quickly that to win we need 20 wickets, deciding to play aggressive and fearless cricket. It meant at times that you would lose games but once you got one across the line it’s infectious.”

“I thought if I can’t get the best out of Rohit then I’m a failure as a coach” – @RaviShastriOfc

Catch the former #TeamIndia coach reveal it all on #BoldAndBrave: The Shastri Way#Byjus #CricketLIVE | Day 1, Lunch | 1st #SAvIND Test | Star Sports & Disney+Hotstar pic.twitter.com/OXsM8AvqEO

— Star Sports (@StarSportsIndia) December 26, 2021

Two different captains in white-ball and red-ball cricket right way to go: Shastri

Virat Kohli was recently sacked from the ODI captaincy and Rohit Sharma was named the new white-ball (ODI and T20I) captain of India. A lot has happened since then including Kohli denying BCCI president Sourav Ganguly’s claim that he was personally asked to not step down from the T20I captaincy. Notably, Kohli had announced his decision to relinquish his T20I captaincy ahead of the T20 World Cup 2021. His tenure as captain in the format ended on an unsuccessful note as India failed to qualify for the knockout stages.

Shastri believes that the sacking can come as a blessing in disguise for Kohli who can focus more on his batting now.

“I think it’s the right way to go (2 captains for white-ball and red-ball cricket). This could be a blessing in disguise for Virat and for Rohit. I don’t think in this era with bubble life one guy can handle all three. It’s not easy at all,” he said.

Ravi Shastri on Rohit Sharma: ‘Would have failed as a coach if I was unable to get the best out of him’

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