Mumbai: Former India head coach Ravi Shastri recently shed light on Virat Kohli’s legendary fitness discipline and the high standards he enforced during his captaincy across formats. Speaking on the LiSTNR Sport podcast, Shastri revealed that Kohli, who always led by example, demanded peak fitness from every player and tolerated no lagging behind.
“If you’re running between the wickets and you’re a lazy bugger, you will soon find out. If you’re panting on the second run while he’s looking for a third, the message is immediately: ‘get to that bloody gym and start training, get fitter,’” Shastri recalled. Players who were slow or showed signs of sluggishness often came under Kohli’s scrutiny.
While Kohli’s intensity drove India to dominate Tests and win the Border-Gavaskar Trophy twice in Australia, Shastri also remembered stepping in to prevent Kohli from overreacting on-field. “If a wicket went down, he would jump out of his seat. I would tell him, ‘Calm down, let him cross half-way first.’ He was like a cat on a hot tin roof, ready to get out there— that’s Virat for you,” Shastri added.
Kohli Prepares for ODI Return
Kohli is now gearing up for India’s three-match ODI series against Australia, starting October 19 in Perth. Despite retiring from T20Is and Tests, Kohli remains committed to ODIs and aims to play through the 2027 World Cup in South Africa. After Australia, India will face South Africa and New Zealand in ODI series, keeping Kohli actively engaged at the international level.
India ODI Squad vs Australia: Shubman Gill (c), Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Axar Patel, KL Rahul, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Harshit Rana, Mohammed Siraj, Arshdeep Singh, Prasidh Krishna, Dhruv Jurel, Yashasvi Jaiswal.
Australia ODI Squad vs India: Mitchell Marsh (c), Xavier Bartlett, Cooper Connolly, Ben Dwarshuis, Nathan Ellis, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Matthew Kuhnemann, Mitchell Owen, Josh Philippe, Matthew Renshaw, Matthew Short, Mitchell Starc.
