'As a captain and a player, he never played for a draw, he always wanted to win.'
Virat Kohli's sudden retirement from Tests caught the cricketing world by surprise.
One of the greats of modern-day cricket across all three formats, the 36 year old called time on his illustrious Test career after scoring 9,230 runs in 123 matches at an average of 46.85 with 30 centuries and 31 fifties -- the fourth highest tally for India after legends Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Sunil Gavaskar.
Kohli is India's most successful Test captain, leading the team to 40 victories from 68 matches.
One of the finest moments of his captaincy came when he led India to a historic maiden Test series win in Australia in 2018-2019.
Under his leadership, India emerged as one of the most consistent Test teams in the world, holding the No. 1 ranking for five consecutive years from 2016 to 2021.
Despite enjoying a stellar record in white ball cricket, Kohli was one of the biggest supporters of Test cricket and relished playing red ball format.
He is the only captain and only Indian to have scored seven double centuries in Test cricket and is the only India skipper to hit two centuries in a Test on his captaincy debut.
Former India wicketkeeper M S K Prasad, who shared a strong rapport with Kohli during his tenure as chairman of selectors from 2016 to 2020, was shocked at Kohli's sudden decision to step away from Test cricket, believing he could have easily played for a couple more years.
"The charm of Test cricket stayed because of Virat Kohli," Prasad tells Harish Kotian/Rediff. The first of a two-part interview:
Did Kohli's retirement surprise you?
It has not surprised but shocked all of us.
It was a big shock for all of us because nobody would have ever thought considering the love and passion that he has got towards Test cricket. He is a totally different person when he wears that white dress, his commitment to the white dress, his commitment to Test cricket is second to none.
He has always believed in Test cricket, he has advocated for Test cricket, especially at the time when it going through a rough time, when they wanted to reduce Test cricket from five days to four days.
He stood firm saying that we shouldn't tamper with Test cricket. It has got a legacy of more than 150 years. Bcause he insisted so much he played an important role to maintain the sanctity of Test cricket. Otherwise you never know, they would have tampered with Test cricket.
You have seen his passion for Test cricket more than any format, interacting with him regularly as the chief selector while he was the Test captain.
Would you say he changed the way India played Tests and moulded it into a team which consistently started winning Tests away from home?
To start off with the energy that he displayed from the first ball to the last ball of the last day it was unbelievable, it was actually contagious.
The charm of Test cricket stayed because of Virat Kohli.
Test cricket was actually fading in interest, he was the who brought back the glory of Test cricket, with his pure energy levels and his sheer passion for Test cricket.
In the past whenever we won any Test match under any captain, especially away from home, we used to praise the captain and the team.
During Kohli's captaincy tenure, people started talking about the Tests we were losing, because winning started becoming a habit under his captaincy.
People were only talking about the Test matches that we had lost and not the ones which we had won because winning had actually become a habit.
We were winning left, right, and center under Kohli, so that is the kind of impact that he created -- both as a player and as a captain for Test cricket.
Kohli captained India to a historic Test series victory in Australia in 2018-2019. As the chairman of the selectors, you must have interacted a lot with Kohli and then head coach Ravi Shastri.
What went into India's greatest Test series triumph?
We started planning for that series from 2017 itself, we planned for the South Africa series, then the England series. Eventually the Australia series was our final frontier.
The South Africa series was very much in our hands but unfortunately, we ended up losing it. Even the England series, the way we fought I felt really proud, it was the most hard fought series by an Indian team.
So the lessons that we learnt from these two series helped us a lot in winning the series in Australia after a long wait of 71 years old.
The whole credit for planning that historic triumph should go to the team management, to the selection committee, and also to the players who responded to the planning.
I would say a lot of credit should also be given to Ravi Shastri, then the other coaches including Bharat Arun, R Sridhar, then Shanker Basu, who were very much instrumental in developing this team and creating the belief in this team that they can beat any team in their own backyard.
The Kohli-Shastri era resulted in creating an excellent bench strength of fast bowlers with your selection committee playing a big part in identifying and giving the deserved players a call-up.
That is another system which has been working perfectly for the last few years and has made India a real powerhouse across formats. Isn't it?
Yes, exactly. If you see Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami and Ishant Sharma -- these three pacers together have taken more wickets than any other fast bowling trio in Test cricket in a calendar year (131 wickets combined in 2018).
Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Umesh Yadav were also there and then you had the all-rounder in Hardik Pandya, so India had a lethal pace bowling unit which was rated among the best in the world.
Then the trend continued as we saw other quality fast bowlers coming through like Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Navdeep Saini, so many fast bowlers emerged after that.
That was actually a collective effort from all of us. We should also credit Rahul Dravid, because he was grooming these fast bowlers through a systematic process from the Under-19 level to India A and then to the Indian team.
Kohli was amazingly consistent across formats for so many years and also led the Indian team with great aplomb, especially in Tests.
How would you remember his legacy?
Kohli gave the Indian cricket team the belief that they can beat any team in their own backyard, no matter what the conditions are.
Under his captaincy, India started consistently winning matches in SENA (South Africa, England, New Zealand and Australia) countries.
He is the one who will be remembered for having the courage to pick a playing XI with five wicket-taking bowlers. India's fast bowling boom also happened during his captaincy tenure.
As a captain and a player, he never played for a draw, he always wanted to win and that is the reason why he became India's most successful Test captain.
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