Whan Ravi Shastri took over the role of the Indian cricket team’s coach, Virat Kohli was the captain. The combination between Shastri and Kohli was instrumental in propelling India through tough challenges and talking on the Willow Talk Podcast, Shastri opened up on Kohli the leader, and the kind of work ethic that he brought along with himself.

Conversing with Brad Haddin and Adam Peacock, Shastri said, “When you have a captain like Virat Kohli leading from the front, the others want to emulate him. Virat is unreal. His work ethics are very special. I’ve never seen anyone like that. Let’s forget the gym. Whether he’s got out for zero, or I remember getting out early in Cape Town and he came to the nets at Centurion.”

Shastri further added, “Then he batted for 45 minutes and went back in and asked Raghu, our slinger, who can crank it up at 150 or 160 from 16 yards and he went after Virat. Virat wanted to come after him on a dodgy pitch. I was a little worried as a coach. The pitch was a little dodgy and this guy is asking him to go flat out and you got a Test match starting in two days’ time. But he was relentless.”

The former Indian coach continued, “And then at the ground, day after day, there’s a routine. He’ll do his warm-ups. He’ll do the stretching part of it. Then he’ll take 50 catches in the slip. Then he’ll go into the outfield and do his ground fielding, then take a knock and then go in. So, the energy you know that he would bring to the table, day in and day out was unreal.”