Former Pakistan captain Salman Butt has opened up on Virat Kohli’s relationship with current and former Indian coaches. He shared that Kohli’s association with former India head coach Ravi Shastri was very successful because both of them are aggressive characters. He also claimed that Kohli could have had compatibility issues with new head coach Rahul Dravid as Dravid is known for his calm nature and both of them have contrasting personalities too.
While speaking about this during a recent live session on his YouTube channel Salman Butt said: “There could have been a compatibility issue. Rahul Dravid remains composed most of the time, whereas Kohli is an aggressive campaigner. On the other hand, Kohli’s partnership with Ravi Shastri proved to be a hit because of their similar personalities.”
Butt also stated that Virat Kohli has been brilliant as a captain, and everyone has been praising him as well – be it the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) president Sourav Ganguly or his fellow teammates. He said “Everyone from Sourav Ganguly to his teammates had good things to say about Kohli. This means that he was fantastic at his job, which is why they have already started missing him.”
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However, Virat Kohli’s resignation as Test captain came a day after Team India lost the series to South Africa by 1-2. He had earlier stepped down as India’s T20I captain after the T20 World Cup last year whereas he was sacked from the ODI captaincy in December last year as well.
Butt, meanwhile, has suggested that Rohit Sharma would be the ideal successor to Virat Kohli in the longer format. While Rohit has been appointed as the new captain in the limited-overs format, Salman Butt feels that Rohit’s fitness could prove to be a major issue for him as well. Notably, Rohit was ruled out of the three-match Test series in South Africa with a hamstring injury and won’t take part in the upcoming ODI series as well. KL Rahul will lead them.
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“Rohit Sharma is having fitness issues. This is why many fans are backing KL Rahul for the post, as you cannot have a skipper who is injury prone. Otherwise, Rohit is a wonderful pick, and he is a proven leader. I am not a fan of split captaincy, but if Rohit does not play a lot of cricket due to fitness reasons, then it could be a point of concern. But I feel Rohit still should be the ideal choice and a younger player could be handed the vice-captaincy,” concluded Salman Butt.
