Former coach Ravi Shastri believes Virat Kohli might have remained captain for another two years.

Team India has returned from a terrible trip to South Africa, where they were defeated 2-1 in the Test series and 3-0 in the ODI series. Virat Kohli decided to step down as Test captain in the aftermath of the Test series loss, after being divested of the ODI captaincy just before the series.

The tour to South Africa was also the first for new coach Rahul Dravid, who took over from Ravi Shastri. Kohli might have remained captain for a few more years, according to former head coach Shastri. Shastri reminded fans that while he believes he could have continued as the leader, his decision should be accepted.

On the sidelines of the Legends League Cricket in Muscat, Shastri told The Indian Express, “I felt he could easily continue for the next two years, but now that he has stepped down, we should all respect his decision.”

In addition to stating that the squad’s future is bright, Shastri also stated that Rohit Sharma should now lead the team in Test cricket. “First and foremost, the team’s future is quite promising. The new talent that is coming in is incredible, based on what I’ve observed over the last seven years. When it comes to captaincy, Rohit is the captain in both formats. He was named vice-captain of the Test team that traveled to South Africa, but he was unable to participate owing to illness. This implies that he is being regarded as the captain.”

This produced a significant gap in the series before the Sough Africa tour. Kohli and the BCCI are at odds after the former went on to refute the stance of BCCI president Sourav Ganguly.

Kohli has been chastised by his critics for failing to win any ICC trophies during his tenure, but Shastri believes that a captain’s performance should not be assessed just on World Cup victories.

“How many of our best players have never played in a World Cup?” What is the name of the World Cup-winning captain? In India, only Kapil Dev and Mahendra Singh Dhoni remain. Should we refrain from discussing any other captain? I am able to speak because I have the World Cup trophy in my hands. People in our country would go after the team even if they won the World Cup but lost the Test series. This is a habit that we all share. “It has been our goal for the past seven years to win as much as we can,” Shastri remarked.