Did Virat Kohli have influence on Ravi Shastri's re-appointment as Team India's coach?

Indian skipper Virat Kohli has always been expressive about his liking towards Indian coach Ravi Shastri in the past. The 30-year-old even before going for the West Indies tour voiced his opinion that he will like to see Shastri back as the head coach of Team India. He also mentioned that if the Kapil Dev-led Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) ask for his opinion, he will definitely vouch for the former Indian cricketer as the Indian skipper and Shastri have a good understanding.

"The CAC (Cricket Advisory Committee) hasn't contacted me yet. If they want my opinion, I'll go and speak to them. With Ravi bhai, we share a great camaraderie, and will definitely be very happy if he continues. But I haven't been contacted so far," Kohli had said while addressing the media at the pre-departure press conference.

But, at that moment Kohli's opinion was not taken. However, on August 16, Shastri got re-appointed as the head coach of Team India for a tenure of two years which arose questions regarding Kohli's influence in the decision making.

Did Kohli have any say regarding the re-appointment of Ravi Shastri?

The CAC committee appointed Shastri till the end of the 2021 T20  World Cup after which his tenure will be up for review. Kapil Dev cleared all the speculations regarding Kohli's influence in the coach selection process stating that if they take the Indian skipper's views then they have to talk with the whole team also. He went on to mention that they did not ask anybody as there was no scope for that.

"If we take his (Kohli's) views we would have taken the entire team's views too. We haven't asked anyone. There was no scope for that," Kapil Dev was quoted by the PTI.

Why was Ravi Shastri re-appointed?

The decision to re-appoint Ravi Shastri was expected as he had a very good record during his two-year stint with Team India. He had the best record among all the candidates as under him the Indian team reached the number one spot in Test cricket and also won a series in Australia for the first time in 71 years. The 47-year-old has a magnificent record with the team as India won 13 out of 21 Tests, 43 out of 60 ODIs and 25 out of 36 T20 internationals during his tenure. Moreover, he connected with the players a lot and is well-versed with the entire system which got him in an advantageous position over others, Anshuman Gaekwad who is also a member of the CAC mentioned.

"Basically, being the current coach, knowing the boys well, knowing the problems well in the team and what needs to be done. I think he is well-versed with the entire system. If somebody knows the system, knows the players well and can communicate well, I think he has the advantage," Gaekwad said.

Kapil Dev further said that Shastri's presentation was better than the others and he got marks for that. According to the 60-year-old former cricketer, Shastri had more communication skills than the others.

"All of them were excellent. Sometimes I felt Shastri had more skills in communication, they may have felt differently but we didn't discuss that we have given the marks after listening to their presentations. We all three have learnt so much, knowing how much hard work they have put in their presentation," Kapil said.

Team India are slated to play a two-match Test series against West Indies which starts on August 22. The Men in Blue have beaten the Windies 2-0 in the recently concluded ODI series.