WATCH: 'His mind was very clear...' - Ravi Shastri reveals conversation with Virat Kohli ahead of his Test retirement

A week before Virat Kohli's unexpected retirement from Test cricket, former India head coach Ravi Shastri revealed their conversation. Shastri disclosed that even though the choice surprised him, he realised it was time for him to quit the format. With a post confirming his retirement on Instagram on Monday afternoon, Kohli put an end to days of speculation, just five days after Rohit Sharma ended his Test cricket career.  

With a career total of 9230 runs, including 30 hundreds, the 36-year-old finished as India's fourth-highest run scorer in Test cricket. In the days after the news, the media said that before making the crucial decision, Kohli had contacted Shastri, with whom he had developed a close relationship during his time with the Indian team. 

Ravi Shastri said that Kohli did contact him during the ICC review. "I did speak to him about it, I think a week before that [his announcement] and his mind was very clear that he'd given us everything," Shastri told Sanjana Ganesan.

Further, Ravi Shastri also mentioned what was going through Virat’s mind at the time of retirement. "There were no regrets. There were one or two questions I asked, and that's a personal conversation which, you know, he mentioned very clearly. There were no doubts in his mind, which made me think, 'Yes, the time is right.' The mind has told his body that it's time to go," he added.

Golden era for Indian cricket 

Additionally, Shastri believed that Kohli's contagious nature and the continuous attention he received were factors in his exhaustion. Even for Indian cricket, the Kohli-Shastri era will go down as one of the best in Test history. In addition to dominating the ICC rankings table, the squad won back-to-back series in the West Indies, snapped a 22-year series victory drought in Sri Lanka, and won a historic Test series in Australia. Shastri, however, gave Kohli a lot of credit for Indian cricket's recovery.

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