Shastri had told Kohli that Dhoni would give him the captaincy when the right time came, mentioned in the new book

Former India fielding coach R Sridhar has revealed in his new book that Virat Kohli was desperate for the ODI captaincy in 2016 and then coach Ravi Shastri asked him to respect MS Dhoni’s decision and wait for his turn. Where did you take it? In his book ‘Coaching Beyond: My Days with the Indian Cricket Team’ co-written with veteran journalist R Kaushik, Sridhar recounts his experiences with the Indian team.

Sridhar wrote in the book, “As far as the coaching group was concerned, an atmosphere was created in which you could look each player in the eye and tell the truth, however bitter it may be.” Mentioned an incident when Kohli was the captain of the Test team but was still waiting for the captaincy in limited overs. He wrote, “There was a time in 2016 when Virat was anxious even for limited overs captaincy. He said such things that it seemed that he was restless for the captaincy.

He further wrote, “One evening Ravi called him and said,” Look Virat, MS has given you the captaincy of the Test team. You should respect that. He will also give you the limited overs captaincy but when the time is right. If you don’t respect him now, tomorrow when you become the captain, your team will not respect you.” Sridhar said, ”Virat took that advice and later within a year he became the limited overs captain as well.’ Describing Shastri as an excellent communicator, he said that he used to talk straight and did not hesitate. He also said that it was the former coach who had to inform the player who was dropped from the team. The book is published by Roopa.