“Unfortunate But Its The Truth”: Salman Butt On Shastri’s Remark On Virat Kohli | Cricket News

The position of India’s Test captain stands vacant at the moment after Virat Kohli’s resignation from the role at the end of the three-match series in South Africa. Kohli dropped a bombshell earlier this month with his decision to step down as captain after losing the three-match Test series 1-2. Since then, rumours have been doing the rounds over the replacement for Kohli. Recently, former India head coach Ravi Shastri said in an interview to Aaj Tak that Kohli could have stayed on as Test captain for couple of more years but “people wouldn’t have digested his success”. Discussing Shastri’s comment, former Pakistan captain Salman Butt said that ex-coach Shastri would have known the environment within the Indian cricket team better than anybody else.

“Obviously, Shastri knows the environment better than anybody else. We all know that the environment of India and Pakistan teams are almost similar but unfortunate that such a mindset still prevails and maybe this is the reason behind top-class athletes failing to give their best. There are many roadblocks on their path and they are their own people. It’s unfortunate but (it’s) the truth,” said Butt on his YouTube channel.

“For sure, he could have led India for at least two years because next two years India would be playing at home and who is coming over – 9 and 10 jacks, if you see the rankings. He would have then probably made it to 50 wins under his captaincy and then a lot of people would have had difficulties in digesting that fact,” Shastri had earlier told Sports Tak in an interview.

Under Kohli’s captaincy, India played 68 Tests and won 40 of them and he holds the record for the best win percentage by an Indian skipper.