Controversy erupted in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 when the Indian stalwarts, Virat Kohli and Sourav Ganguly didn’t shake hands with each other. After Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB)’s win over Delhi Capitals (DC) at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium, the two seemed to ignore each other and didn’t shake hands. A lot of people on social media reasoned it as the ‘rift’ – if it is indeed there – stems from the time when Kohli was the Indian skipper under Ganguly’s BCCI presidency.
Tensions began between the duo right after Virat Kohli resigned as the T20I skipper in October 2021; two months later, the star batter was sacked from ODI captaincy as well, with Rohit Sharma becoming the successor. In January last year, Kohli also left his position as Indian Test captain, allowing Rohit to assume captaincy in all three formats.
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Interestingly, it was reported that Virat Kohli had unfollowed Sourav Ganguly on the leading social media platform Instagram right after the game against DC and that the former BCCI president returned the favor as well. With tensions growing between the two stalwarts, Ravi Shastri was asked whether he would want to diffuse the tension in the given circumstances.
During a chat on ESPNCricinfo, the anchor came up with the same situation as the one between Kohli and Ganguly and asked Ravi Shastri how he would deal with it. The former India head coach had a rather blunt response.
Ravi Shastri said, “Depends on what my relationship is. If I don’t want to talk, I’ll just go past. But at the end of it, when you go and sit down, you feel that there’s always some room to grow up, no matter how old you are.”
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Shastri was the Indian head coach till the T20 World Cup in October-November 2021, and even though the duo of Shastri and Kohli (as captain) didn’t lift an ICC trophy, they made India one of the best touring nations in the longest format of the game and also played a major role in building the side’s pace-bowling attack.
