Ravi Shastri's tenure as India's head coach came to an end after the team's exit from the ICC T20 World Cup in the United Arab Emirates this week. Rahul Dravid will now take over the job as India get ready to host New Zealand for a series of 3 T20Is and 2 Tests from November 17. Now, Ravi Shastri has hinted that Virat Kohli could soon give up the ODI captaincy of the Indian cricket team. Kohli recently quit the T20I captaincy with the 2021 T20 World Cup being his last tournament in the role. Shastri feels that Kohli will retain Test captaincy but could give ODI captaincy soon to focus on red-ball cricket and his batting.
In an interview with India Today, Shastri said, "In red-ball cricket, India has been the No1 team in the world for the last 5 years under Virat Kohli. So unless he wants to give up or if he is mentally fatigued and says he wants to focus on his batting - which can happen in the near future, don't think it will happen immediately - it can happen.” He added, "The same might happen with the ODI. He might say he wants to focus just on Test captaincy. It is his mind and body that will make that decision. "The former Indian coach believes Kohli giving up captaincy will be a completely normal course of action which many players have done in the past. “He won't be the first, there are many players in the past who have had very successful tenures as captains and then given it up to focus on batting,” said Shastri. Shastri's tenure was marked by a period of success for India in bilateral limited overs cricket and in Test cricket. India managed to win back-to-back Test series in Australia and lead England 2-1 in an away series that was postponed before the final Test was played
