Former Team India coach Ravi Shastri has revealed some stunning details about Virat Kohli's work ethic as the latter prepares for his international return. Shastri, who coached India from 2017 to 2021, recalled how disappointed Kohli was to get out and hit the nets immediately ahead of the next Test against South Africa.
The aforementioned incident relates to India's tour of South Africa in 2018 as Kohli perished for 5 and 28 in the opening Test in Cape Town. The tourists had lost the first two Tests of the series to concede the series but won the final one in Johannesburg.
Speaking on the Listnr Podcast recently, Shastri answered when asked about the 36-year-old's work ethic:
'Unreal. His work ethic is special. I've never seen anyone like that. Forget the gym, whether he is got out at 0. I remember him getting out early in Cape Town. He came to the nets at Centurion and he batted for about 45 minutes, then went back in and asked Raghu, the slinger, who can crank it up at 150-160 from 16 yards. He went after Virat. I was a little worried as a coach because the pitch was a little dodgy and this guy is asking him to go flat out and you have a Test match starting in two days' time."
"Then at the ground, day after day, there's a routine. He will do his warm-ups, the stretching part. Then he will take 50 catches in the slip cordon. Then he will go into the outfield. Then he will go in the outfield and do the ground fielding. So the energy that he would bring to the table, day in and day out was unreal."
Team India's ODI squad ahead of Australia tour:
Shubman Gill (Captain), Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer (VC), Axar Patel, KL Rahul (WK), Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Harshit Rana, Mohammed Siraj, Arshdeep Singh, Prasidh Krishna, Dhruv Jurel (WK), Yashasvi Jaiswal.
